Thursday 3rd September

There was thick mist first thing this morning which shortened the four hour to a three hour trip, and it drifted in and out all day. It didn’t affect the sightings adversely though, with plenty seen on the morning trip. Amid the waves we were found by a couple of pods of common dolphins who rode with us as we sailed, giving everyone good views. We also saw a sunfish, the first for a while, as well as several different seabird species including, storm petrels, gannets, Manx shearwaters and a great shearwater. Heading back into the bay a pod of Risso’s dolphins appeared, allowing Josh to get some good ID shots for his catalogue. Finally there were a few seals starting to haul out on the island as the tide dropped.

On the afternoon Bay Discovery, the murky mizzle abruptly re-descended as we were motoring towards the island – when it does this it can feel impossible to imagine it going away. However as we were watching the seals, the light started increasing again and visibility improved. There were 12 seals hauled out, a good number for this site – again a mixture of adult males and females. A little way further south we saw another ocean sunfish right at the surface – it stayed there for quite a while, allowing everyone to have a good look at its flapping fin and shiny silvery body gleaming in the water. We then went for an exciting sail on the southwesterly wind, surfing down waves at 11 knots, before finding yet another sunfish. Perhaps they are all starting to head south again as the daylight hours diminish.