Wednesday 21st August

It’s a windy week that’s for sure. This morning started calmer and we were able to get our four hour trip in with full sail up. We had small groups of dolphins darting in and out then disappearing , before we found a group which interacted with the boat more consistently and everyone got some good views. We also saw some Cory’s, great, sooty and Manx shearwaters, storm petrels, gannets, and some tuna leaping and we finished the trip with lots of seals hauled out on the island. This afternoon the wind steadily built from the south west, which coupled with the big spring tide, made for some steep choppy waves. There were seals still hauled out and we watched a couple being slowly rolled off the rocks as the waves rose higher. We saw a really thick bloom of salps – these jelly looking invertebrates are astonishingly more closely related to humans that they are to jellyfish. Sailing southwards there were seabirds feeding in many places and a few times some common dolphins appeared them completely disappeared. Sailing inshore a sharp eyed passenger spotted another fin, and a maternal group of dolphins rushed in to bow ride. There were a couple of really small juveniles among them who were very cute. It was worth having a wave dumped on my head as I was steering (saved the camera though).