seabirds

A five hour trip this morning and it was another cracker. There was just enough of a south easterly to have a great sail without it being choppy and uncomfortable, though a bit of splash never harmed anyone 😄. First we had a lovely view of a pair of seals on the rocks on the…

We had three fantastic trips today. The first one was a private charter organised by Dr Tom Horton of Exeter University, who used to be a Marine Discovery guide in another life! His recent research has investigated the stomach contents of landed tuna to see what they are eating – really important stuff if we…

There were a beautiful couple of trips today in calm seas and warm sunshine. On the morning Bay Discovery there were hundreds – and I mean hundreds – of common dolphins feeding well inshore.  We saw three dolphins engaged in behaviour which was clearly “courtship” i.e. two males hounding a female. There were also large…

Another day with masses of wildlife. This morning’s Discovery Voyage passengers had great encounters with loads of common dolphins and some close up views of some really massive breaching bluefin tuna. They were all feeding again under hundreds possibly thousands of gannets, and underneath the gannets there were Manx shearwaters and lots of screaming gulls…

Most unusually this year, this morning was like a typical Cornish summer’s day with murk and mizzle! It didn’t actually last long though, and by lunchtime the northerly breeze had blown the rain away and the sun was back out. This morning’s Ocean Discovery saw HUNDREDS of common dolphins. They were feeding with a mad…

Back out on the water today after a day off in yesterday’s strong wind. We started early with a five hour Discovery Adventure, in more westerly wind than we have been used to, with greyer skies. A far more typical Cornish summer’s day in fact! However as predicted, this brought the seabirds back in, and…

It was very windy with the thunderstorm last night until morning, so the sea was in a bit of a confused today. On this morning’s three hour trip we motored slowly up the coast into the incoming waves, stopping at the island to sea the sleeping seals. Then we hoisted the sails and headed out,…

It was a bit of a misty one this morning though the swell had dropped (slightly!). There were still so many seabirds out there – it’s an amazing sight watched them gliding and dipping over swells and into troughs with scarcely a flap. They were searching for food along big streams of foamy plankton which…

It was another windy day with awesome sailing conditions. We headed further out this time and there were a few more Manx shearwaters than there were yesterday, though on the whole everything was rather quiet. The coast and sea looked magnificent in the shafts of sunlight – the sea was cobalt blue. Inshore we saw…

We were so lucky with the weather today – it was forecast to be wet, and we didn’t get a single drop out at sea, though the hills inland looked really misty and rainy. The moral of this tale is – ignore BBC weather. There are far more accurate forecasts. The seabirds are amazing at…