So near and yet so far...might be worth a visit though!

Brendan O'Connor 18:16 (17 hours ago)to me

Cliff,
Thanks for copying me in on much of the interesting projects etc that you and your organisation are doing. I wish you success in 2012.I have just returned from a great day of Whale and Dolphin watching. It was superb. In fact it was like watching a documentary.A friend and neighbour, Martin Colfer, took 10 of us out for the day in his 38 foot catamaran, Rebecca C. When we were about 3 miles south of the Hook Lighthouse, we saw whales blowing about a mile away. When we got closer, there were 3 Fin whales “messing about” on the surface. We were about 100 metres from them. They disappeared and then we got briefer sightings of them for about an hour and they disappeared. There was great bird activity about half a mile away and we investigated it. There were nearly 18 common seals there and then a Humpbacked whale appeared only about 50 metres from our boat. It was brilliant. We watched him for a while and he showed us his tail a couple of times. Then the Irish Whale and Dolphin people came along in a rib. They wanted to get a skin sample from the whale and had a crossbow. We then retreated to give them a better chance and we went back to the Fin Whales. Whilst we were watching one group, in the distance near the Saltee Islands, we could see whales blowing frequently.On our way home, the Dolphins put on a wonderful show for us and a few of them jumped clean out of the water. It was the first time I had seen that. What a day and what a treat. I can understand now how you are so enthusiastic. I had to tell someone about my day!Martin said that this was the first sighting this year of a Humpback whale in Irish waters. He does these trips as and when the weather permits. He said that it was a better than average day.Allthingsbetter