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9th July

A big congratulations to Kimara today. She just found out she got a First for her BSC in Environmental Science. She's such a hard worker that the result is well deserved. It makes us feel even happier that she has chosen to work for us for a third year (though we are determined to take at least some of the credit given that we helped her gather the data she used in her 88% dissertation!)

4th July

Our new boat

We have a very exciting news update to give today. Our new boat is finally here! We've been talking about and preparing for the new boat for such a long time now that finally having it here doesn't seem real. You may or may not already know the story of why we are switching boats so I'll briefly outline it here before recounting the story of the crossing from France.

It has nagged us for a long time that we have been running wildlife watching trips on a diesel burning RIB. Burning fuel every day and blasting noisily around always seemed to us to go against the ethos of wildlife watching. For a long time we looked at alternative ways to try and reduce the environmental impact of our business but none proved suitable. Then last year we realised the obvious solution would be to run our trips under sail power. We haven't just chosen any old sail boat for the job. We've got a fast sailing catamaran which will allow us to cover a similar area on our trips as we could with the RIB. The new boat offers more space and comfort for passengers, it is higher up so passengers will have better views of wildlife, passengers will be able to move around more freely during trips rather than being wedged in to seats the whole time, it has an exciting trampoline at the front where the more brave can sit and watch the water rush by underneath and more importantly it will hugely reduce our carbon and noise footprint. The catamaran does of course have two small outboards for manouvering and to power us on days when there is no wind. These outboards are however very quiet and use a very small amount of fuel.

The journey from France

We bought the catamaran from a place called Vannes in Brittany and on Wednesday 30th June my friend Matt and I set out to bring it back. The previous owner had bought the boat along the coast to Concarneau to shorten the journey. Once we got there we set about stocking and preparing the boat for the voyage and set off at 2pm on Thursday 1st July. As we headed out of Concarneau we had a visit from a large pod of common dolphins, some even choosing to bow ride us for a while -surely a fantastic omen for the future!

This area of France is beautiful with offshore islands and stunning craggy coastlines so it was a pleasure to be sailing along watching the scenery pass by. The catamaran proved itself to be a fantastic sailing boat and we were soon eating up the miles on the way to Penzance. The next part of the voyage was up the west coast of Brittany, home of the notorious tidal races the Raz de Sein and the Chanel de Four. Both are areas of sea to be greatly respected. As we headed up here the waves generated by a big low pressure system offshore increased in size and we spent the night sailing along on a lumpy sea. Once again the catamaran proved itself to be a great boat as it took the conditions in its stride and we pressed on towards home.

As dawn broke we rounded Ouessant, a small island of the north west tip off Brittany and set the course north for Penzance. After a day of racing across the large rolling north westerly swell we arrived in Penzance just after sunset. The trip back from France was a great way to test out the catamaran and has left me even more excited to share the magical experience of sailing on a fast catamaran with our passengers.

Hello.

Well, it's been a long time. Apologies for the non-appearance of News – we had malicious virus which we had to fight for a while.

In other news…on Wednesday 26 th May, there will be a showing of The Cove at the PZ Gallery (just opposite the Jubilee Pool), Penzance at 7pm.

“ THE COVE is an amazing hi-tech thriller following the daring crusade of an elite group of activists and filmmakers as they strive to uncover a dark secret involving environmental human rights abuse and the covert killing of thousands of dolphins, hidden beneath the infamous waters of The Cove … Find out why this powerful, beautiful and devastating documentary has galvanized audiences all around the globe and gained international acclaim.”

Please come if you can. We will be giving a short introduction to the evening and showing some of the photos we have taken over the last few seasons before the film is shown. There is a suggested donation of £3 on the door. For further enquiries contact us or the PZ Gallery.

In even further news! We have decided to promote a 10% discount for repeat bookees this season. To claim your discount, we'll need your name and the date of your last trip.

There may be some of you wondering how things are going in The Great Boat Switch. Hopes were that we would sell the RIB over the winter and therefore be able to buy the cat, which hasn't happened, but things may be starting to move in that direction. Watch this space…