We came across some lovely harbour porpoises, similar to small dolphins and in the same family as whales. They played near us for a little while before heading off to go about their porpoise day! Finding porpoises is always a good sign as it means there is food in the area, and the whales and dolphins are often hunting the same fish, or other fish in the food chain there.

It was because of the birds that we found a couple of harbour porpoises, the smallest cetacean we have in these waters. They disappeared very fast which is not surprising as they are notoriously shy, but it also looked as though they were busy with their hunting at that time. Finding porpoises gave us even more hope than the birds that we would find a whale or a dolphin as it showed that there was fish in the area so we kept a sharp lookout.

It was a minke whale, surrounded by harbour porpoises! The whale was feeding in the area, just like the other cetaceans, and so each time it popped up it was on a different side of the boat.

It was a minke whale, surrounded by harbour porpoises! The whale was feeding in the area, just like the other cetaceans, and so each time it popped up it was on a different side of the boat.

As we were explaining this a minke whale surfaced! It turned out to be extremely friendly, not at all worried by the ship and it swam around us for the best part of an hour, feeding and relaxing. Evidently completely unfussed by our presence. What a magical moment for all of our customers, everyone managed to get some really great photos.

There we found white beaked dolphins! They are a friendly and curious species of cetacean, about the same size as a bottle nose dolphin, but with a less pronounced beak and wonderful markings. The pod had about 10 individuals in it and they were really showing off, bow riding the yacht, jumping, hunting and darting about. We recognised several of the individuals thanks to the cuts and scratches on their dorsal fins.