seabirds

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…

We had a four hour trip today in conditions which got progressively darker and dimmer! Sightings were very similar to yesterday’s with several seals hauled out on the island, the same female hauled out on the rocks under the lighthouse and a few very stern looking males round at the secret seal cove. Very much…

May already! For May Day we were greeted by some lovely views of puffins – a single adult which sat very bravely on the water before taking off, followed by an immature bird with its sooty little face a while later. There were also lots of other seabirds to see including shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills….

There was a brisk northeasterly wind blowing over a sea which was full of southeasterly swell today which make for some rather confused sea conditions. We sailed from Penzance Harbour southwards then west all the way down to Gewnnap Head, where we again found absolutely stacks of seabirds feeding in the tidal race – guillemots,…