Cartlet Lady Trip 22/09/2026 (Kens Take)

 A truly, truly magic day deserves an epic account so I apologise in advance as this could be a long one which I hope you all enjoy. Thanks to Cliff for his intro of the day in his previous post and to Richard Crossen for a superb video linked from his post below. Do take a look if you have time.

So following on from Cliff's starter here's dinner and pudding. :-))

We left the Haven in a mix of mist and murky drizzle with hopes of better conditions offshore. The sea was like glass which is shown well in Richard's video although there was a residual swell from the previous few days. We were well out before we saw our first dolphin (yes a single) which was unusual, followed over the next few miles by a further two. Normally by this distance we would be seeing larger pods so it didn't look too promising at this stage. A couple of Bluefin Tuna broke surface but nothing much then for several more miles.

Thankfully we then encountered larger numbers of Common Dolphin with some very lively characters that couldn't wait to get on the bow and enjoy the ride.

 We  were sixteen miles out by this stage and the dolphins just kept coming and coming seemingly out of nowhere, much to our relief and the delight of our paying guests. Mile after mile, pod after pod it was dolphin central and boy were we enjoying it. The weather was improving but still overcast at times giving very flat light, making camera focus difficult at times, so it  was a case of firing away to up the percentage of decent shots. We hit the jackpot at twenty six miles with the sighting of a big blow up ahead. Fin Whale I thought, but as we got closer more blows, then more, until we realised there were at least six and possibly eight or more feeding in an area of about a quarter mile radius. Now don't get me wrong, I was over the moon but you don't realise the size of these beasts until you see one up close and I'm so glad I brought a variety of lenses with me as my long 200-800mm spent very little time on the camera as I couldn't fit even 2/3rds of a whale in the frame. One was so close I had to use my wide angle lens to capture it. They were busy feeding with some great lunges as they devoured tons of fish at a time. A truly magnificent sight with dolphins bow riding them as they sped along. Further off to perhaps a mile or so there were more blows sighted so there could have been a dozen or more.

This shows the length well head and tail fluke some sixty feet or more apart.

 

So while I'm standing on the bow, or trying to at least, the dolphins are still coming to the boat, as well as huge numbers moving with the whales. I managed to catch a few flyers in between whale shots as we waited for them to surface again.

 All good things must come to an end though and skipper Andy called time to turn for home. There was one final twist though. As we turned away from those magnificent whales what seemed like a patch of boiling water appeared off to starboard. Tuna!! and hundreds of them in what we call a Tuna thrash. They were hitting a shoal of fish with no mercy shown. I've never seen the likes before. As we approached I just kept shooting in hopes of catching a breach or two, but these seemed different to the big silver sided Bluefin we're used to seeing. Smaller and more bronze in colour and after research at home I think they were possibly Yellowfin but I'm open to being corrected. The speed they move is incredible and the poor fish have little or no chance when they attack.

 

So that in Cliff's words was dinner and pudding. I hope you enjoyed this posting and it gives you a flavour of what is out there off our beautiful Pembrokeshire coast. It certainly gives me a thrill every time we venture out and I feel fortunate that I can at least bring some of it back to show you all. 

Thanks as always to Skipper Andy for a fabulous day on the high seas.