Last Sunday’s trip to Lundy was scheduled to be the last of the year but I am already being asked for a trip in about a month’s time to see the seal pups and any unusual, migrating birds. We will see!

We locked out of the River Tawe at 10.00 hrs and set of for Port Eynon where we were to pick up another 4 passengers from the beach, this done we headed directly for North Lundy and the island came into sight after just 10 minutes, or so.

Sea conditions were good though we met a couple of overfalls on the way where we had to slow down from 25 knots to 20 knots, for just a few minutes. We arrived under the North Light after less than an hour and, after viewing the large number of seals, all of the passengers decided to alight there and walk the length of the island.

I motored the boat around to the south end landing beach where I anchored and rowed ashore in the tender. I then climbed up to the South Light where I took a number of photographs of the lighthouse, possibly as an entry to Trinity House’ photo competition (see www.trinityhouse.co.uk).

While there the Balmoral came in with a boatfull of passengers and so I let most of them pass and get served first at the Marisco Tavern. I eventually made my way to the top of Lundy and walked along to the Old Light and then back to the tavern for lunch and a cup of tea.

Some of my passengers turned up at the tavern, while I was there and we had a chat about the walk along the island. (as a lighthouse keeper here , years ago, I used to do this walk 2 evenings out of 3)

I then went down to the moorings, meeting the other of my passengers on the way. We all met up and boarded the boat for the journey home. We saw gannets, fulmars, manx shearwaters etc.

About 5 miles south of Port Eynon a few Gannets were diving and then we saw a number of Harbour Porpoises, it was difficult to be exact as we may have counted some of them twice but we saw between 5 - 8 though there must have been many more that we didn’t see.

This is unusual as we frequently see Harbour Porpoises, throughout the year, but usually in one’s, two’s and occasionaly three’s. Unfortunately the porpoises are much more timid than dolphins and tend to stay away from the boat so, we were lucky to get such a good view of them.

We arrived at Port Eynon beach just an hour after leaving Lundy and the passengers who wanted to, disembarked there. back along the majestic south Gower coastline, stopping at many points of interest befor getting back to the lock where the lock keeper was good enough to let us more or less straight in and the rest of the passengers then disembarked.

It was a good trip with good weather and settled sea conditions.

While at Lundy we did not see any pup seals but they will be due over the next few weeks. I was in the Scillies a fortnight ago where some seals had already pupped. I will have daily information from both Lundy and Worm’s Head and as soon as the pups are seen I will email you to let you know.

Due to the recent demise of the Outer Tawe pontoon, all of our trips for the near future, have to start from the Marina. This means that we must assemble by the marina pontoon, at the north east end of the Tawe Basin at 1/2 past the hour in order to get through the marina and Tawe locks, on the hour.

You should have received details of next week end’s trips by now, via another email.

As always I look forward to seeing you aboard.

Chris Williams

Friday 12th August

We had a request to take a party of young ladies from Cardiff to Lynmouth, where the girls were staying for a “hen party” weekend.

We agreed a price and arranged to pick the girls up at the Pier Head side of Cardiff Bay at a time that would allow us to get them to Lynmouth at high tide. This meant that we had to collect them at 1000hrs and, unfortunately, not all of the girls could take the day (Friday) off work, sufficient were able to do it to make the trip worthwhile.

The bride to be had no idea what was in store!

On the morning, we left Swansea through the 0800 hrs lock and headed for Cardiff. I had a colleague who is a professional photographer on board and though we stopped to take some photos on the way, we still managed to enter one of the locks, into Cardiff Bay, at 0945 hrs.

We moored at the pontoon and the girls came aboard. We gave our safety chat and donned life jackets and entered the lock, once more, outward bound. In the lock the girls opened a small bottle of Champagne each and posed for photographs.

We passed the sea front at Penarth and, once clear of Lavernock Point, plotted our straight line course to Lynmouth. We had travelled to Cardiff with a slight following sea but now we were heading directly into a head sea which gave quite a bit of movement to the boat!

The girls did not stop laughing, screaming and giggling throughout the journey, especially whenever we took off on a wave or came down with a bump. All too soon Lynmouth Foreland came into sight and we could see that the see around the point was very “confused” with a great deal of white water about. This is ideal conditions to demonstrate the abilities of a RIB, when compared to a conventional boat.

Exhilaration with complete safety.

We passed the point and lined the boat up for the entrance into Lynmouth Harbour. I always enjoy visiting Lynmouth, the village, the valley and the harbour are exceptionally picturesque, though I do wish the harbour was a bit bigger and accesible for a longer period over high tide.

The girls disembarked and thanked us for an exciting and enjoyable trip. I left the boat tied up to have a “natural” break and to buy some of my wife’s favourite rum & raisin fudge, a N. Devon speciality.

Unfortunately, we had to leave straight away to get back to Swansea for another trip in the afternoon. We encountered more heavy head seas on our return though, nothing that the RIB could not take in its stride. The seas did slow our progress as we took nearly one & a half hrs to get back to Swansea, in calmer conditions we can do it in an hour.

We arrived back in time for the 13.30 hrs lock-in, just enough time to refuel and get back out through the 14.00 hrs lock-out for the next trip.

We had covered 99.6 nautical miles over the three legs of our journey in 5 and a half hours which, considering some of the conditions and stoppages, was excellent progress indeed.

Hi Everyone,

Planned trips for this weekend are:

Saturday AM, Swansea Bay Experience and South Gower as far as Oxwich Bay.

Saturday PM, Worm’s Head and south too see the seabirds, seals and possibly dolphins.

Sunday, looks like another good day for a Lundy trip, depart Swansea at 10.15 hrs return 18.00 hrs. lets hope that it will be as good as last Saturday’s trip with loads of seals and dolphins, porpoise and puffin as well as visiting Lundy in all its glory.

Bookings taken on 01656 668667, as normal, but still remember that our trips are weather dependant.

See you aboard.

Chris Williams

On the tubes of our RIB are written, “Seals, Porpoises, Dolphins & Puffins all seen from this boat on local trips”. However, it is not very often that we see all of these on one trip, Saturday was an exception.

We left Swansea at 10.15 in balmy conditions and after advising the Coastguard of our itinerary we set off at our usual 25 knots for Lundy. The sea was glassy smooth though there was a slight swell.

We spotted a Harbour Porpoise but, as is usually the case, this shy animal soon disappeared. We carried on and saw a large male Atlantic Grey Seal, sticking its head out of the water and looking at us, its suposed to be us looking at him!

We passed a large number of Guillemots many with their recently fledged “jumplings”, Razorbills, Gannets, Fulmars, many Manx Shearwaters and a good number of Storm Petrels.

I followed two of these Petrels as their flight indicated that they might have been Wilson’s Petrels which, though they are abundant off shore, are rarely sighted inshore, in Welsh waters. I have seen many Wilson’s in the Scillies and I am quite confident that I would recognise one if I saw one close enough. However, I did not get close enough to confirm the identity of these two Petrels so they will have to remain unconfirmed. Therefore, it’s still a bit early for Wilson’s so maybe a trip in the early Autumn will bring a better confirmation.

As we approached Lundy, I spotted a large raft of Manxies which also had some Gannets and Gulls in the centre of it, amid a lot of activity. This is usually the sign of Mackerel, or other baitfish, at the surface and often Dolphins are seen close by.

No sooner had I said this to our passengers than some Common Dolphins were seen jumping from the water and heading for our boat. Soon the boat was surrounded by these magnificent mammals as they circled us and rose out of the water. Some were mothers with their calves.

They stayed with us for about 5 minutes, which gave everyone the opportunity to take a lot of pictures, before they eventually swam away.

On to the north end of Lundy where, under the Lighthouse a Puffin flew passed us, to quick for photos unfortunatly. Lundy is famous for its puffins but we do not see that many here, we are more likely to see them at Worm’s Head on Gower.

A large number of Grey Seals were in the water and delighted all on board with their antics. We then motored around the North Point, leaving the Bristol Channel and entering the Atlantic Ocean. The north west area is where most of the seabirds have their colonies but it was clear that most of the birds had fledged and so there was not a great deal of bird activity.

We then motored to the south end landing where our passengers disembarked. They set off for the Marisco tavern whilst I moored the RIB and paddled in to shore in my inflatable dinghy.

By the time I arrived at the Tavern, I was surprised to see that most of my passengers had nearly finished their meals but then found out that they had been given a lift to the village, in a Land Rover by one of the Island staff. They were really spoiled that day.

After lunch, one of our party wanted to do a bit of fishing so we arranged to meet the others at 16:15 for departure and 3 of us set off to catch some mackerel. We went to the west side of the island, away from the east which is a Marine Nature Reserve, and within an hour we filled our fish box with good sized Mackerel and Pollack to 6lbs.

We returned to the landing bay and picked up the rest of the passengers before heading for the north end to see more seals. We left Lundy at 16:40 and arrived back in Swansea Bay at 18:05.

A great day was had by all.

We had a brilliant trip to Lynmouth and Ilfracombe today. Sea was calm sun was warm and wildlife was in abundance.

Took some photos of a small (40cm) Sunfish which we approached and it stayed on the surface around the boat for several minutes, a large adult male seal popped its head up to view us as we passed at 25 knots and many guillemots were seen, some of them with thier “jumpling” chicks. A Redshank followed us for a time and a single Storm Petrel also joined us.

Lynmouth was looking at its best though it doesn’t open until 10.0am! A trip up the fenicular railway was worthwhile. Along the coast 10 miles to Ilfracombe, more guilemots and a few gannets, a quick visit around the harbour area, bought some fudge and left for Swansea.

A solitary harbour Porpoise was seen and we came upon a raft of perhaps 100 or so Manx Shearwaters, these beatiful and graceful birds are definately among my favourites.

We motored into Swansea Bay and accelerated to 35 Kts for the final few miles arriving back at the pontoon just 5 1/2 hours after leaving it.

A great trip.

We have 2 spaces for a trip to Lundy on Saturday when sightings of Common Dolphins and Basking Sharks are a real possibility. Leaving Swansea 10.15hrs, returning 18.15hrs. First come first served, so book early.

On Sunday we will travel to Lynmouth / Ilfracombe again in the morning and to Worm’s Head in the afternoon. If you haven’t yet seen the seabird colony at the Worm make sure you go soon as the birds will soon be leaving as the young will be fledging soon.

Usual contact details apply:

Tel. 01656 668667 / 07850 047721 or email for further details.

Chris

Still haven’t had our first Lynmouth / Ilfracombe or Lundy trips of the season yet. With the late evenings for the next few months a Friday /Saturday or Sunday evening trip to north Devon is very feasible and enjoyable, Have a pint and a pasty in Ilfracombe or a ride on the fenicular railway at Lynmouth.

With the mackerel due over the next month Dolphins will be a real probability on any Lundy trip together with Basking Sharks (the world’s 2nd biggest fish).

I always have two or three people willing to make any of these trips, we just need a few more to make it economically viable. If you would like to try such a trip please contact me and I will ensure that it is carried out.

I look forward to your enquiries and seeing you enjoy yourselves on board.

Chris Williams.

As always, if you do not wish to receive any more email updates, please advise and I will delete your address from my database.

Some time since my last blog, a combination of being busy with other boating matters, poor weather and a short break to the Scillies has meant that there has not been a lot to report about over the last month or so.

However, we had a super trip today. Along with some of our regulars, Linda and John from Newport, joined us on a 3 hour round trip to the Worm. Lucky it was today as the weather yesterday and tomorrow’s forecast would not have enabled us to do the trip. How can you tell its a British Bank Holiday weekend!

I had been out earlier in the day for some “Swansea Bay Experience” trips which gave me the opportunity to see the true state of the sea off Mumbles Head. Though it was a bit lumpy inshore, it was calmer a little offshore and the forecast was favourable.

During the morning I had spotted one Harbour Porpoise close to Mumbles outer island.

Therefore, when we set off for the Worm, I decided to go south of the Mixon sandbank and head due west for Worm’s Head. It turned out that the sea was also quite lumpy out there but the boat coped with the conditions extremely well, demonstrating the inherent abilities of a RIB in such conditions.

I decided to head inshore and as we passed Oxwich Point the seas became much calmer and we increased our speed from 20 to 25 kts. We arrived at the Worm less than an hour after departing the pontoon in the River Tawe.

Rounding the headland we were able to view the seabird colonies and the numerous Guillemots, Razorbills and various gulls all nesting on the sea cliff. We motored on quietly until we came upon a small group of Atlantic Grey seals, one of which had marooned itself on a rock as the tide had receded.

Next I spotted a young seal with a small yellow hat attached to its head! Fortunately, I had come across this last autumn, while on the Scillies, and therefore knew it to be a released seal from the seal rescue centre at Gweek in Cornwall.

I took some digital images of it and I have zoomed in on the hat to show what it looks like. I have not attached this image to this email as it would increase downloading time for those (like me) who are not yet on broadband but, if anyone would like to see it please reply to this email and I will be pleased to forward it on to you.

We returned to the north side of the head and tried to spot any puffins among the other Auks but unfortunately didn’t see any this time.

On our return we viewed the caves, coves, cliffs and beaches which make Gower such a magnificent area. We saw the small colony of Choughs above Bacon Hole though, this time, no Meditteranean Gulls in Bracelet Bay.

A quick dash across Swansea Bay bought us back to the River Tawe where our sun kissed and wind kissed passengers disembarked all having had a most enjoyable trip.

I look forward to seeing all of them again soon.

Having established that a suitable weather window had been found, a full contingent of bird enthusiasts boarded Drake at the Outer Tawe Pontoon and we set off for Worm’s Head, hoping to see the first of this seasons Puffins.

Our passengers included a number of senior, though sprightly, birders from Kent, some of whom had visited the south Gower coastline over the previous few days, guided by Neil Donaghy of CelticBirdTours, who accompanied us on this trip.

Neil is a well established and highly regarded specialist tour operator who always seeks the best opportunities for his clients, see www.celticbirdtours.com.

On the way to the “Worm”, we experienced a following sea of slightly greater strength than had been forecast, though this presented no concerns to our RIB.

A few guillemots, fulmars, black-headed gulls etc were spotted on the way and Neil’s keen eyes also saw what he believes was a Manx shearwater in the distance. If Neil thinks that was what it was, it is good enough for me though, at that distance, we would not record it as a sighting.

3 sandwich terns were spotted as we passed Port Eynon, together with the first of many fulmars which were to be seen on this trip.

On arrival at the “Worm”, the sea swell, which can often be significant, was benign enough to allow us to pass Worm’s Head and settle in the north of the headland where most of the birdlife nests through the season.

Literally hundreds of guillemots and razorbills launched themselves off their ledges and re-alighted. While we observed their rapid wing beats, we were amused to notice a number of guillemots which had difficulty alighting from the sea’s surface. We presume because their bellies were so full of fish!

Neil spotted a single gannet, which is the first to be seen off Drake this season, along with many herring gulls and though we could clearly hear kittiwakes, we were not able to identify individuals.

Unfortunately, we did not spot any puffins, this trip, though they should behere about now, perhaps we will see them on the next trip.

We spent about an hour in the calm waters on the north side of the Worm but I was aware that the easterly wind was building. I suggested that we should make our way back towards Swansea, stopping along the way if any interesting birds were spotted.

As we rounded the Head it was clear that, contrary to the forecast, just an hour before we set off from Swansea, the sea state was not going to be as favourable as stated, for the return journey.

In fact, I would describe the return journey as “quite lumpy” in places. Though some of our passengers (and my right trouser leg) did get splashed we steadily carried on our return journey.

Some common terns were spotted as we passed Port Eynon Point and Neil spotted a single kittiwake and a male and female eider duck between Caswell Bay and Langland Bay, a first for me and Drake!

Once back in the relatively sheltered waters of Swansea Bay we powered up to 30+ knots to get to the Tawe lock, just in time to enter it before closure, saving at least 1/2 an hour.

Despite the weather not being in our favour, a worthwhile trip was undertaken, those on board saw many birds that they would not normally see and enough birdlife was seen to bode well for the rest of the season.

Thanks to Neil and his party for making the trip so beneficial. Inevitably, unless the weather is with us, it is the magnificence of the Gower coastline and the enthusiasm of the passengers which makes these trips so enjoyable for me.

The weather for the Bank Holiday Weekend is looking variable at present and so I will advise you of our planned trip(s) nearer to the weekend. I know some of you would like a visit to Lundy or north Devon, let’s see how the forecast goes.

While in the Tawe lock, a new Tourist RIB arrived having just motored from St. David’s in west Wales. This is the Gower Explorer, owned and skippered by Jim Phillips, and will be based at Mumbles. Our businesses are bound to overlap each other, at least to some degree though I am very relaxed at Jim’s arrival, good wishes to him for his venture, it can only help to build Swansea as the premiere centre for tourist RIBs in south Wales.

Please contact me (01656 668667) for any bookings this coming weekend and to see what we are up to over the near future.

See you aboard Drake soon.

Regards.

Chris Williams

Whenever we undertake any trip, we always have to take heed of the present and forecast weather, for the area which we are to visit. Saturday’s trip to Somerset was no exception.

The conditions at the start of the trip were excellent and the forecast was for winds, northerly at first, backing westerly force 3 or 4, increasing later. Sea state was to be slight to moderate. Conditions that our RIB will take in her stride.

However, as we passed the mid way mark towards Minehead, it was clear that the wind was already building and the sea state was deteriorating slightly. This was still of no concern as it was well within our safe working limits.

We carried on to Minehead in a “following” sea, the sort that can push us into the base of the wave ahead, resulting in a good deal of water being shipped aboard. We kept the bow trimmed high and reduced our speed accordingly however, one wave did catch us out and all on board had an “involuntary” shower, this was taken in good humour by all on board.

We arrived at Minehead, on time, 90 minutes after leaving Swansea, and met our clients, whom we were due to take on to Lynmouth. However, with the prevailing sea conditions I took the decision to cancel this part of the trip and arrange to take the party another day.

We left Minehead and during the journey back, I was satisfied that I took the correct decision. The entrance to Lynmouth Harbour is quite exposed to any wind with a northerly element and though I am certain that, had we had to, we could have made a safe entry, my policy is always one of safety first and I would rather not expose any paying passengers to any situation that could be considered “marginal”

We carried on into a head sea which is where the RIB really shows that she is the 4 X 4 of the sea, taking the conditions well though, we did have to slow down to approximately 20 knots for most of the way.

As we approached Swansea bay, the sea state flattened and, as one of our party was desperate for the loo, we accelerated to nearly 40 knots for the last 5 miles or so.

We returned to the Tawe estuary and informed the Coastguard of our safe return, something we do for every trip.

A trip to Worm’s head was planned for the afternoon but, due to the weather conditions, this was postponed. I had a booking for Sunday for a private charter and I had already warned that party that Sunday’s forecast was very poor. Fortunately, they were able to turn up on Saturday afternoon and we had a great time in the more sheltered waters of Swansea Bay and Mumbles Head. Mumbles Yacht Club were holding a regatta in the Bay and we were able to follow and photograph the race, at a reasonable distance.

The day was not as planned but everyone had a good time, it is always an experience and passengers are always amazed about how stable the RIB is, even in quite adverse conditions.

Next week, more trips around Swansea bay, two planned for the Worm and a possible trip to Lundy Island for the first time this year.