First liners first past the post on the Cartlett Lady!

After several hours organising the trip advertising for applicants and putting everything together, Last night I had a full boat of  first liners and a promising forecast for this morning. Up at dawn showered and dressed, i plugged in the laptop and found a message from a pair of  the passengers that had called off at 1 am! The forecast had also changed and was less favourable! 

"The best placed plans of mice and men oft go awry"as the old saying goes... And it had been a long time in planning! I had raised several hundred pounds on a Face Book birthday appeal and managed to persuade Stephen Thornton of Valero to match it, so we could  take some of the hero's an d heroines of the pandemic out for a dose of vitamin sea on the Cartlett Lady, rather than just clapping! 

I arrived at Neyland early, not in the best of moods but bumped into old mate and skipper of the "Celtic Wildcat", Nick 0 Sullivan who was also taking a party out. He reckoned the weather would be OK so that put me in a better frame of mind! Half an hour later I had only seven of the nine who had applied but they were such a lovely bunch my spirits raised and i began to feel a bit less of a failure. Skipper Andy and  Rees were crew, (Rees is usually in charge of huge container ships for Maersk Lines) so we were in good hands!

It was foggy and a bit choppy as we made our way out of the Haven but as we cruised past Skockholm and through the gap between Skomer and Midholm, the sea was flat calm and covered in puffins! 

I apologies that my pic's are not up to the usual standard but Ken was away, so it was up to my doubtful photographic talents or faffography, as Ken dubs it!.. As we gentled up the north side of Skomer we came across a porpoise showing well just off the Garland Stone, much to the delight of our passengers who had already lapped up the puffins and a couple of seals, so not a bad start.

 

We then headed out towards Grassholm with its spectacular 100,000 of breeding and non breeding Gannets and their chicks or "Gugas" as the are known on the outer Scottish isles where were harvested as an important part of the islanders diet.  These on Grassholm are safe enough apart from those that get entangled in old fishing net and other plastic rubbish the adults collect to line their nests. Not far off Grassholm we had our first Common Dolphin encounter with a small pod of about a dozen that passed us heading north without joining us.

Unless you have experienced the sight sound and smell of 100,000 Gannets you really have not lived, a first for all our passengers. I think they were impressed! as were Nick's party on the Celtic Wildcat who were also there!

 On and out into the very warm blue yonder, a bit choppier but everyone was in high spirits and the vitamin sea was definitely doing its job! And then we hit dolphins and dolphins and more dolphins!(estimated 250 + ) Again, the images are my attempts, whilst also trying to record them on our record sheets on a slightly bouncy flying bridge...

Sometimes you get lucky sometimes things get in the way, as a wave hits you! We also had a total of three Minke whales, brief sighting,s one or two missed but most got a glimpse... sorry no pic's!

A relatively quiet trip back to Neyland but I think everyone was delighted with their day and as we passed Valero I took a couple of pic's as they have been part sponsors and we are grateful for their support in looking after a few really top people!

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