Cartlet Lady Pelagic 22/06/2023

 The pre trip meet up at Neyland marina is always interesting to me as we get a chance to meet up with old friends and new people we have'nt previously met. A sort of get to know you before we set sail if you like which allows for introductions etc. This occasion was exactly that, a mix of some old and new faces and a chat before we boarded the Cartlet lady. The wind was light, the sun was warming and the promise was for a good day ahead. 

First trip of the season and as we cleared the heads the anticipation on board was evident. An hour or so out and we were into our first pod of Common Dolpohin. A relatively quiet group but some came in to the bow to play as others swam around the boat as we moved slowly along. Over the next few hours we encountered several more pods as we headed WSW over calm seas. 

So with 1,500 images taken the first task is to sort out the trash (of which there's many) that took me down to around 700 although most of these were bird shots. Shooting at 30 frames a second you do build up the numbers very quickly which left me with a manageable number of cetacean shots. The issue then is choosing which to put on the blog. So here's a selection of the more general shots but I will put a link to another site where you will be able to see the more arty shots as well.

The dolphins we did meet were not as active as some we've had in the past so no high flyers this time. As we reached our turning point we were disappointed not to have encountered any whales and we were hopeful of something on the way back in. Our course was to go NE up toward Grassholm zig-zagging to cover more ground and then to Skomer on the way back in. 

As we motored along with the Smalls Lighthouse distand off our port side the shout went up "Minke"!!! Sure enough there was one off to starboard some 200Mtrs or so. Difficult to track now as the wave hight had slightly increased as the wind picked up and because it wasn't showing very well either. At one point we thought there may have been two but it's not easy to tell when they go under for longish periods.

As I mentioned there were very many attempts at catching the bird life out at sea and around the islands. Here's a small selection of my efforts on that front.

Now I did promise earlier that I would put a link to the more arty dolphin shots from this trip so here's the link and a taster shot.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wdig/albums/72177720309280843

I hope you've enjoyed this blog entry. I'm sure there will be more like this as we hope to have more trips as the summer progresses. Do keep popping in for a look as we post our Strumble exploits as well as other bits of interest here as frequently as we can.

Ken B