I left Fishguard headed toward Mathry to pick up Cliff and Fran as the sea mist was rolling into Fishguard Bay. Not the best thing to see on a boat trip day and it persisted all the way there. As we reached Letterston it was better but we picked up the thick stuff again as we dropped down to Wolfscastle, but joy of joys by the time we reached Neyland the mist was clearing down the haven and better still the wind turbines were still which meant no wind. All aboard then and it was off down the haven in glorious sunshine.
We left the heads behind with calm seas ahead and as we chewed up the miles we had a feeling it was going to be a good day. Now the first three trips of the season had been far from the best and on each trip the dolphins had been quiet and lethargic. What a surprise then as we approached the first pod of the day to see them leaping as they sped into the boat. Time after time each pod greeted us with as much delight as we did them and to be honest it really made up for any disappointment we may have felt on previous trips. I have a thought that lack of regular food may have been the cause for their previous behaviour and now the Mackrel were here in big numbers they had fed well and had energy to spare. We steamed on and had a very brief encounter with a Basking shark as we passed it almost head on. Most in the boat got a look though and although we tried to re-locate it sadly we failed.
We left the dolphins behind and ventured out a few miles more before changing our heading to the south then looping back around to the East as we headed back in. The next sighting was a Minke Whale much to the delight of Cliff and all aboard. It was hard to get the lenses on it but eventually it surfaced long enough to get a few shots for the record. A lot more dolphins on the way back in with a very big feed going on at one time with over a hundred Gannets joing in the feast creating quite a spectacle. An hours push back into port with everyone delighted and smiling thanks to a wonderful day in the care of skipper Andy and crew Rob who as ever got us out and back safely making sure the time in between was very memorable indeed.
I have so many images of this trip that I will post a selection over the next couple of days but will place them all on my Flickr stream and put a link here for you to be able to view them.
ENJOY!!! Ken B.
I have now uploaded all 50 or so images to my Flickr stream. You can view them on the link below. When you get there you may get a cookies dialogue box. If you don't want to accept the cookies just press the bottom left button to reject and dismiss. Below the header bar and just above the images to the right side you'll find an icon like a TV with an arrow in it if you press this it will go into slide show mode. Careful though you might stay there for hours :-). Just sit back and enjoy or you can scroll through and click on individual images to view larger.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wdig/
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