Date: 29th June 2009
Location: Hough Bay, Isle of Coll.
Position: 56°37.534N 006°37.315W
Distance travelled: 53.4 miles

Today was a rather uneventful day (LOL, only 22 sightings as opposed to 50 the other day!). We set sail to some windy and slightly rainy weather. Dressing in our foul weather gear we powered forward into a cold blustery sea. Just as we were thinking our trip could not get any better than the previous days encounters we came into sight of 2 bottlenose dolphins. Our first sighting of the day! They were off in the distance but very special just the same.

Sailing onwards the seas calmed, the sun peaked out allowing us to view at three different locations upwards of 30 basking sharks. Most were feeding and some with a bit more energy were breeding! We saw juvenile basking sharks and large adults. All different sizes to be had.

Amazing as all this sounds it gets better folks. Off in the distance was an animal rarely seen in these parts large as a bus with a very distinctive blow. It was an adult Humpback whale!! He seemed amused by our presence and milled about the boat. What a great sight. Cameras were clicking away and batteries getting low as we shot away. Halfway into this encounter a Minke whale appeared from nowhere. More photographs taken and data logged into the onboard laptop computer. The humpback allowed us the view him for more than an hour before we moved on our way. We saw 3 Minke’s this day along with 6 Harbour porpoise and 7 Seal sightings.

All that is left for a us now is the see the resident Orca clan that roams these islands…check in tomorrow to see how we do.