Thursday 15 November 2012

Charlie continues the Stena Europe dolphin fest (and we see some of our own!)

As I looked at the forecasts a nice little weather window seemed to be opening up with Wednesday/ Thursday looking good. I phoned up Stena but due to some technical hitch we could not get aboard untill the early morning Thursday.  It meant boarding just after midnight but at least we would have the 9am  Thursday sailing back to Fishguard fronm Rosslare, which looked best. Our chums on the bridge have a habit of greeting me with the words  "you should have been here yesterday and indeed Senior Master Colm Clare had sent in a report of a nice pod of Common Dolphins a couple of days previously. Helmsman Charlie Morley , true to form had a big smile on his face , "Loads of Commons  yesterday Cliff, all shapes and sizes, along with a single Risso's, brilliant views!!! (aaaargh... here we go again) !
So after a nights kip on the ferry and a nice slap up breakfast, a watery sun was rising as we headed out of Rosslaire heading for Tusker, There wre still quite a lot of Gannets wheeling around and we soon picked up a couple of Porpoise with new girl Hannah finsding one of her own beating Elfyn and the Walrus. 
I eventually saw a large but distant  congregation of feeding Gannets with splashing  just visible below them Luckily we had the scope and managed to make out a pod of at least 60 comons but sadly no Risso's. Not an epic sighting but quite comforting to know we had not entirely dipped out on the Stena Europe dolphin fest! After quite a long lull Hannah manged to spot a couple more speeding up to our bow that dissappeared in our wake, and of course Strumble produced the goods with a couple more Porp sightings, Not bad for November but there again Dan Worth  was also filling his boots up North it seems... well done Dan!