We’ve had some lovely sailing conditions recently – sunshine and glassy seas. The visibility in the water has been really good so we’ve been able to watch seals swimming around and under the boat, which makes us very conscious of the advantage of not having propellers to worry about!
Calm seas are also good for checking out underwater creatures – there’s a whole other world down there. We’ve had some fascinating critters in our lobster pot, with dogfish (like mini sharks), crabs and lobsters being the most popular with passengers.
Dolphins have visited Ramsey Island a few times this year. Amazingly one of our passengers yesterday came out on a jet boat trip with work colleagues in July and saw dolphins in Ramsey Sound – an infrequent occurrence but not exceptional. He brought his family out with us yesterday and saw dolphins off Ramsey again. Those odds are pretty exceptional.
The mackerel fishing took a while to get going but fishing has also been good this summer. Tim doesn’t need much arm twisting to go fishing or to check for lobsters in the pot!
A foretaste of autumn is coming, with wind and swell forecast to pick up a bit so we’re keeping a good eye on the forecasting sites with a view to taking the boat out of the water within the next week. The canine boss has been ‘working hard’ supervising behind the scenes and is looking forward to us taking him on holiday.
Passengers have been teasing us that 8 hours at sea isn’t what most people would call ‘retirement’ but we have only worked 2 months at sea this year and frankly salt water is good for us 🙂 . It’s been terrific to catch up with people who’ve been sailing with us for years and to enjoy what continues to be a really good season for wildlife spotting.
Seal watching, fishing and surfing are no hardship. We’ve had a great summer sharing these things with passengers as we continue to discuss options for the future.