Thursday 20th July

We had two excellent trips today – a four hour followed  by a three hour. The bay was full of common dolphins here there and everywhere, even before we reached Mousehole where we saw several seals hauled out and in the water. Sailing further out we picked up a large pod of Risso’s dolphins, including a very small, very white calf.  There must have been approximately thirty of them. We also saw an ocean sunfish. This afternoon we watched the seals on the island before getting the sails up, when we immediately spotted a small ocean sunfish. Spotting some gannets to the south we sailed in that direction and saw the tell tail splashes and breaches – “Common dolphins” we initially thought. But actually they were harbour porpoises, behaving exactly like dolphins, even down to the full body breaches and investigations of the boat. They were popping up everywhere – magic porpoises. Looking further afield Duncan spotted something much larger – a  minke whale! This is the first one we have seen for ages; it rolled over very close to the boat, giving everyone on board a special view. And after that dolphins on dolphins on dolphins, before it was time to head back to shore.