Wednesday 8th July

We had a our first five hour Discovery Adventure today and it was awesome! Conditions could not have been better for wildlife spotting. We hadn’t been going twenty minutes when the sightings started and at one point we didn’t know where to look – Risso’s dolphins to starboard, porpoises to port and common dolphins straight ahead! We had beautiful views of the dolphins then motored east a bit to see if we could pick up more porpoises and they were everywhere! From a distance their behaviour looked very dolphin-like with full breaches and lots of white water as they charged. While watching them we had the most amazing views of compass and crystal jellyfish, which looked like alien spacecraft in the crystal clear water. A bit further on we picked up a couple of sunfish – the first one was almost mammal like in its behaviour. It made several passes of the boat and swam under us and alongside us before flapping lazily away. We only saw the fin of the second one, but it must have belonged to an absolute whopper – if it wasn’t for the fact that it was flapping  with a slightly curved point, it easily would have been mistaken for a shark. Sadly we didn’t get a look at the body of the fish, but it’s amazing to think what’s down there.

We then headed into the Land’s End area where it was suddenly very windy and choppy so coats went on and sails went up. But all was quieter out there for wildlife apart from another group of porpoises, so we sailed into Porthcurno via the Runnelstone, where somebody abruptly turned the wind off. It was like the tropics! We sat and listened to what sounded like a group of children and young people practising “Who Will Buy” from “Oliver!” All very surreal and a wonderful point in the trip.

The afternoon Bay Discovery saw Risso’s dolphins galore, including some very small calves with their mothers. There is still lots of prey inshore both here in Mount’s Bay and apparently all along the south coasts of Cornwall and Devon.