Not a bad little boaty ride

The Safari likes a boat trip when we're away and we're a pretty good sailor, not succumbing to the dreaded sea-sickness and we've had some rough rides in the past. Last week we had been hoping to go to the Scilly Isles for a day trip on the Scallonian ferry but with it being an all day trip Wifey wasn't to happy to left home alone so we opted for a half day trip instead. Our first choice of operator had finished for the season the previous weekend so we had to scout around for another and Wifey found Marine Discovery and their snazzy red catamaran. Turned out to be a good choice. The skipper told us the catamaran made for a pretty stable platform and even though the wind of recent days had died down and sheltered Mount's Bay was nice and calm further out there was a bit of a swell going on. Under sail the catamaran just swished along lovely and peaceful, just the lanyards rattling and the flap of the sails without the roar/whine of the outboard motors (which were used from time to time).

While waiting for all the rest of the passengers to arrive we watched some Mullet cruising around in the harbour and snapped away at passing Black Headed Gulls.

Once out of the water our knowledgeable crew, skipper Duncan and wildlife spotter Amber, pointed out a dark shape on the water a fair way off the port bow - getting all nautical for you now...aka on the left - which was Eddie the Eider Penzance's only resident Eider duck (drake) who is occasionally joined by others during the winter months but is currently probably (definitely?) the world's most southerly Eider.

It was while trying to get pics of Eddie we realised that this on board a boat photography wasn't going to be that easy. Even in the calm waters just outside the harbour wall the boat was saying around and of course it was making forward progress too so as soon as the camera had locked on to the subject it was out of focus almost instantaneously. Add the changing light as you looked port, starboard or straight ahead and we had the recipe for photo-nightmares. Yep we're making excuses for the poor quality of our pics already. Oh and we soon realised we should have taken the 18-300mm lens not the big dobber 150-600mm.

Once away from the harbour we turned towards the Atlantic but hugged the coast aiming towards the rocks just off the fishing village of Mousehole (pronounced Mouzle) where the team knew there would be snoozing Grey Seals, again among the most southerly in the world. They were a favourite of the more land-locked of the passengers and even we don't see them hauled out this close along our coast.

Cruising slowly round the island there was a second one and then a third until the Scallonian ferry went past and its wake rudely woke them from their slumbers and washed them off the rocks and into the water. also on the rocks were a number of gulls, Great Black Backs which nest on there but obviously have now finished their breeding season, Herring Gulls and this little cluster of over-exposed first winter Mediterranean Gulls.

Underway again and heading out into open water a passing fisherman in a Rib came close and told us of a group of Harbour Porpoises feeding out by a certain mark so we changed course towards them.

All the while groups of Gannets passed overhead and aay in the distance one of the punters spotted a large number of them diving so we changed course again and went that way to find out what else was with the commotion.

It was then someone shouted out "dolphins!"  (Bizarre - our speech marks key and 'at' key have just changed places - how does that happen?) We looked round but couldn't see them at first until we spotted one right underneath us between the two hulls of the catamaran - awesome, in all the very many boaty rides to see marine life all over the world we've never had dolphins bow-riding the boat we've been on before. It was no it became apparent we needed the shorter eider lens, the 150-600 was U/S! And to make matters worse we couldn't get our phone from the depths of the pocket due to life jacket we were (very sensibly) wearing. At times we could almost touch them, our fingertip only inches above the water surface and their snout only inches below it, superb - what we've been waiting many years for - - and of course the lass who was sat next to us was on her first ever boat ride, beginners luck but we're very glad she was with us!!!

We had to wait until the pod had moved off away from us someway before they came in range.

(Short Beaked) Common Dolphins aren't a species we see along our coast and we can only recall one instance of one being found washed up on the beach in recent(ish) years.

One species we didn't see many of all holiday as Kittowakes, maybe they'd all moved through but there are seriously concerns about population crashes due to the unavailability of their prey from a combination of Climate Change moving the distribution of their prey species to industrial fishing depleting the populations of these smaller fish to make pig food, farmed salmon food, fertiliser etc...not good at all.

The dolphins left us, not bothering to go as far as the bait ball, seems they only wanted to have a look at us and 'play' and weren't too hungry, or they knew it was the wrong sort of fish. Once we arrived the Gannets had mostly dispersed and there were none diving just a few loafing on the water. There were however hundreds of Manx Shearwaters which despite their number were notoriously difficult to get decent pics of leaving us just this one out of hundreds taken!

After have a good close look at the shearwaters we turned back towards the mark where the Harbour Porpoises had been seen and after a few minutes under sail spotted them in the distance, at least five including a juvenile animal. They were shy and moved away from the approaching boat even though we were under sail with no engines running. They did their usual trick of surfacing four or five times in quick succession to replenish their oxygen supply before disappearing on much longer divers when it became very much a guessing game as to where they would resurface, we managed just one dodgy shot of one, at least it shows the typical view of the small triangular fin disappearing below the waves - one we're all too familiar with along our coastline.

Once we'd had our fill of porpoise guessing it was time to move on and the skipper shouted he'd seen a bit if a breach in the distance, he wasn't sure if it was a Blue Fin Tuna or a dolphin but his experienced eyes saw it again and he confirmed it was a (Offshore) Bottlenose Dolphin so off we went that way to see if we could catch them up. We didn't it/they weren't seen again but we did come across another large raft of Manx Shearwaters and this one had two Sooty Shearwaters with them.

Not the best due to the rolling action of the boat just taking it out of the 'sweet spot' (honest) but a species we never in a million years would have thought we'd get a pic of never mind a fairly close up one

 As ever more Gannets were passing the boat but we never did catch up with them diving for fish.

A dark bird coming as if from nowhere across our bows was an Arctic Skua which we failed to get a pic of as it was lost to view behind the sail and then all we would have been able to get once it reemerged was a shot looking straight up its backside - not pretty!

But all was not lost as a Bonxie (aka Great Skua) did almost the same thing but was picked up earlier and stayed in view longer going diagonally away from us rather than straight across us. Scary things these beasts, stealing fish from Gannets twice their size with impunity and even on occasion killing Great Black Back Gulls - now that takes some doing as they're not the most passive of birds themselves!

Moving back inshore we learned about the need for England's newest lighthouse Tater Du and stopped for a moments reflection at the site of the Penlee lifeboat disaster.

Moving on back towards the harbour we passed a sea cave that 'must' have been used by smugglers - well this is Cornwall and 'every' sea cave must have been used by smugglers.

And where there's smugglers there HAS to be pirates, or at least boats that look like they ought to be pirate ships

And with that we were soon back in the dock.  No sign of any Minke Whales on this trip and of course we unable to catch up with the Bottlenose Dolphins, we'd have liked a Great Shearwater and Storm Petrel or two as  well but that's just being greedy and overoptimistic. Only one thing for it - we'll have to go out with them again and we're sure we will. An excellent morning out on the water - thanks very much to Duncan and Amber for their hospitality and knowledge.

Where to next? Tales of local rarity twitching, even more dreadful pics and outside there's a huge south westerly whipping up so we could be in for some Leach's Petrels and other seabird goodies this coming week

In the meantime let us know who's only a fingertip away in your outback