August Adventures

This month has been very unpredictable with quite unsettled weather.

We have had a few days it has been so bad we have had to cancel, thankfully this is quite rare! But amongst the wind and rain that has battered our shores for a few weeks now we have had some excellent sightings.

With basking sharks being almost a daily sight, we have been able to get some great photo id shots of both juveniles and also a few larger 8-metre fish. Just on our trip on Sunday we had a shark breach close to the boat, we had been watching a number of them feeding in a tideline, but the breach took us completely by surprise!

Another visitor that we have now seen a number of times this month has been the sub-tropical sunfish. Usually rare, and hard to spot unless the conditions are quite calm, this obscure looking fish has been seen a number of times, there have been a few yachtsmen also reported sightings of a 'circular creature with a small fin on the surface', again in quite random locations.

Whale sightings have been less than July, but we have been seeing a younger animal that is very social with the boat! It seems to have taken up residence for a few weeks having found a good food source, and between meals has circled and swam under the boat a few times.

The weather although changeable has its usual way of throwing us plenty of surprises if we are willing to head out, always a sea loch, or headland to hide behind for us to hunt for beasties! A sooty shearwater was spotted last week, tiny harbour porpoise calves seem to be learning how to come to the surface to breath (more practice required for a few!) resident Tobermory otter has delighted many of us feeding on its breakfast as we prepare to head out of the bay, and in large numbers we have been seeing seals & their pups, come rain or shine they always put a smile on our face!

James

Skipper