From Steve Cunliffe...

Hi Richard Good to see you again during the week. Had further close encounters with the Bosherston otters before dragging myself away for the Thousand Island Dolphin Trip on their jetboat.I guess the conditions were as good as they had been all week but still force 3, maybe 4. Also on the outward trip to Grassholm we had several squally showers and they really whipped up the sea. So outward bound was a real test for the waterproofs. Once we got to Grassholm and sat out the last of the showers , there was no way we could get out to the Smalls so the skipper took us slightly west and then arced north and then north east to the Bishop and Clerks.. He mentioned a reef where a lot of ammunition had been disposed off so was no fishing zone. Anyway the plan worked as the sun came out and we quickly ran into the outer edges of what turned out to be a super pod of at least 200 common dolphin spread over at least 5 miles. At the centre was a huge bait ball with gannets diving in and a huge number of dolphins. Many of the dolphins approched us from the north east. leaping well out of the water as they came to the boat and then bow riding with us.In total we must have been with the pod for over an hour . There were so many dolphins in the air even I managed to get one.Here's the photo I took. I will post the otters pics on Flickr later.