Thursday 18th June

We have been plagued by fog this week. It can happen when we get a southerly airflow that sucks up a load of moisture from the Bay of Biscay, when the rest of the country is basking in sunshine and it’s incredibly annoying. But that’s part and parcel of living on a peninsular sticking out into the Atlantic. Yesterday and this morning had to be cancelled, but the visibility lifted enough to run this afternoon’s four hour Discovery Voyage, and it was seabird heaven. We saw thousands of Manx shearwaters out there, who glided past the boat in a constant stream, and in amongst them there were some rarities e.g. a great shearwater and a great skua. It’s almost always good for seabirds when it’s misty. We also saw three sunfish though they were in a very skittish mood today. In the least convenient place possible, Duncan spotted a Risso’s dolphin surging through the waves in the Runnelstone tidal race – it was extremely choppy just there this afternoon as the tide poured past Gwennap Head! Sailing back along the coast we passed several feeding pockets of birds, including gannets, shearwaters,  sandwich terns, kittiwakes and other species of gull. At low tide there were also nine seals hauled out on the island.

There are no trips tomorrow due to the wind. However at the weekend the forecast improves dramatically (about time), and we have spaces on Sunday’s tours.