Tuesday 23rd July

We had a Discovery Voyage this morning followed by an Ocean Discovery, and conditions almost couldn’t have been better. So welcome after the gloom and mizzle of yesterday. First thing we saw a small group of very elusive dolphins close inshore – they clearly didn’t want company so we left them very quickly. Looking at the photos, one of them had a really bad fin injury, almost certainly from a propeller. So we went further offshore and tracked a small group of gannets from a couple of miles off – this handful of gannets led us to maybe the biggest and most interactive pod of dolphins we have seen so far this year. Large numbers of them stayed with us for a long time as we sailed south west – what a treat for our passengers (and us of course!). We also saw harbour porpoises and at the end of the trip, eleven seals. Those seals were still there at the start of the second trip, and from then on we saw small groups of common dolphins and feeding seabirds throughout the afternoon. A really lovely day with some properly friendly and engaged passengers on board – thanks for your company!