Wednesday 29th October
It MIGHT have been the end of the season today, however we’re not sure yet! It started very mizzly and murky but cleared up ever so slowly and the sun came out for the afternoon trip. This morning we found some common dolphins which gave everyone a lovely encounter as we sailed quietly along. Seabirds included gannets and kittiwakes again, and a puffin! It was an adult bird, though their beaks had shrunk and dulled compared to earlier in the year. There were lots of seals on the island which were still there at the start of the afternoon trip. One of them was “Kelp” who was recently returned from pupping sites on the north coast (where she was spotted and IDed). Presumably she gave birth, weaned her pup (she’s an old hand at this now), and has mated again ready to start the whole cycle again. One of the seals looked like she had picked up a bit of an injury, hopefully a superficial one. We then hoisted the sails and headed out to sea where we had a traverse of the bay in the bright sunshine (after doing some man overboard practice on someone’s hat and a child’s shoe which he somehow dropped into the sea!)