Tuesday 24th June

The weather forecast decided yesterday it would be misty and drizzly today. I hoped it was lying but it wasn’t. However it was one of those summer days when a southwesterly wind and poor  visibility brings in a lot of seabirds close to the coast. Most of them were Manx shearwaters and gannets, and one of the passengers this afternoon saw either a European or Wilson’s storm petrel, but it vanished into the mist before he could  get a good enough look at it. There were seals hauled out on the island on both trips including a couple of juveniles. This morning we sailed to exactly the same part of the bay to yesterday and found a small pod of common dolphins again, which cheered up the drizzle. During the afternoon we encountered some really thick fog inshore so headed out again. It was quieter further but eventually picked up a lot of feeding seabirds, and this time they were feeding with a lot more dolphins. The sun even came out at the very end of the day.