Sea Trust Pelagic:Fri 2.Sept 20011

To end my week off on a further nautical note Teresa and myself booked on one of the Sea Trust's cetacean survey pelagics out of Neyland Marina and after an early start we were soon meeting up with Cliff Benson and the other participants at the marina cafe.

We set off on time and were soon "steaming" down the haven towards open water which once encountered was "lumpy" to say the least and it must have been borderline that we actually sailed.

A Manx Shearwater way up the haven was a bit of a surprise and as we headed our in the general direction of Lundy we picked up plenty of Gannets,Fulmers and Manx Shearwaters.

Cetaceans were a little thin on the ground but after a couple of hours we encountered several small pods of Common Dolphins coming in to "bow-ride" with the twin-hulled Celtic Wildcat,some so close you could hear them "blowing".

The sea state remained more than a little choppy and after doing a "loop" we stopped near Grassholm where the swell made me feel more than a little unwell and for the first time ever out on a small boat I threw up for a couple of minutes,that seemed to do the trick and as we headed back towards Neyland I felt a lot better.

I'm sure I saw Wayne's image in the water as I heaved over the side saying "that'll teach you to take the p..s out of me",harking back to a similar pelagic a number of years ago when he was ill for almost the entire trip !!

There were still thousands of Gannets on and around the island and the smell didn't exactly do me any favours in my delicate state !!

As it was fairly quiet and the sea state was still quite rough we arrived back at Neyland about an hour earlier than scheduled which was fine by me,I've enjoyed better times out in a small boat but won't let this one put me off,I'll be back for some more next year and will hopefully catch up with and enjoy a close encounter with those elusive Fin Whales.