Dolphins off Jersey's east coast last night

[Erin]

Went out for a short spin as it was so nice, and luckily had the video camera with us. Would have been even better if the lens hadn't steamed up towards the end. Great shot of one jumping out the water at 3min35.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99VtfHVhQYw

[martini]

Awesome! They wouldn't leave you alone would they! I haven't seen a single one yet this year

[Erin]

Need to get round to Gorey, just off the Horn and around the Banc de Chateau

[sarahscottiedog]

Wow ! how cool is that ! Never seen any fotage of a pod as large and active as that in the channel / channel islnds before. Very impressive

[willk]

Originally Posted by martini

Awesome! They wouldn't leave you alone would they! I haven't seen a single one yet this year

Might be that Harpoon Launcher that's spooking them

[willk]

Nice vid Erin, they add a special something to any trip out.

[Mollers]

They're not exactly plentyful around these parts. Had a pair larking about 50mtrs from us in the SR4 earlier in the year. It was first trip out with the SR in the mouth of the Helford.

[gotchiguy]

Nice vid! We were on Minquiers (sp?) yesterday with a group of french ribbers (Cap Breizh) and we encountered a huge pod of them as we exited on the south side. We too have got a great video, they were just playing with the boat, we were going along at a steady 25knts and one came up and brushed the bottom of the tube with its fin - fantastic! Thats only the second time we've seen them in the past 10 years of boating in these parts.

Whilst on Minquiers, moored to a beach, the sand was suddenly a squirming mass of fish! A shoal of sand eel I believe had become beached and they were making their way up through the sand, so even once we had cleared the beach, it was a good game to walk about and be the first to spot the next one! Everyone in the group had huge handfuls, it was absolutely incredible, they should make for a good supper tonight

Went out to the bay of St. Cast today to have our first go at waterskiing, in short it was a disaster - wrong day (a little too rough for a beginner), wrong place (there were dinghys, kitesurfers and boats with waterskiiers everywhere) and above all wrong observer mum just isn't confident enough to watch me and not the waves ahead Signs are promising though, only had two goes until mum made us go home, but I managed to nearly get out on the second, hopefully with a good observer it should prove great fun

[Erin]

I was thinking about your trip to the Minquiers on Wednesday and half considered coming down on the rising tide in the afternoon to have a mooch. I've seen photos of huge sand bars at low tide, but don't know where they are in relation to the main isle. Can you put me out of my misery? I'm wondering whether they're accesible from the main anchoring area just east of the southernmost bog or whether it is best to beach somewhere else to get to them.

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

We were on Minquiers (sp?) yesterday with a group of french ribbers (Cap Breizh) and we encountered a huge pod of them

I had no idea the collective term for ribbers was a pod, you learn something new every day

[Gotchidad]

The dolphins were certainly spectacular, but I really wish I had taken a video of Oliver and the others chasing the fish around the sand! They were Lancons - a small silver fish looking a bit like whitebait (although Wikipedia says this is a generic term for very young fish) - and moved rapidly in all directions when they appeared on the surface. Highly amusing!

Keith - we had lunch on Maitresse Ile first and then headed round to Grune du Brai for the afternoon. I will PM you with the co-ordinates of the route we followed. It was revealing that when we stopped for a couple of minutes to fix an oar on the tender, we became disoriented and a few minutes later had lost all contact with the other two boats. Just shows how careful you need to be. Anyway, we followed the planned route very precisely and slowly and eventually caught up on the sand bank. But the rocks are everywhere as you can see from the "parking" arrangements! The water was absolutely gorgeous for swimming.

[Channel Ribs]

Superb!

Jack reckons your grey tubes draw them in.

[Erin]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Superb!

Jack reckons your grey tubes draw them in.

Ahh, they think I'm a huge bass do they, or one of their mates?

Originally Posted by Gotchidad

But the rocks are everywhere as you can see from the "parking" arrangements! .

That's typical Frenchy mooring. Regularly see French boats moored on top of rocks at Les Ecrehoes.

And did your anchor hold alright, or have you upgraded it.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Erin

That's typical Frenchy mooring. Regularly see French boats moored on top of rocks at Les Ecrehoes.

And did your anchor hold alright, or have you upgraded it.

We have upgraded to a 7.5kg Bruce with 7.5m of 8dia chain. Nice & heavy duty , admittedly not as big as the Bedatec system but better than a 4.5 plough with 5m 4dia! We didn't beach since we had brought our tender & engine and had only got there once their boats were 10m from the water line so we anchored just off the shore and it appeared to hold well even when I swam out to it and tried to pull it it would hardly budge, the anchor even without chain is extremely powerful it would appear! I think we would be confident enough now to anchor overnight even if there was a moderate swell it looks as if she would hold very easily. One other thing about anchors though - how much rope do you carry, we have 47m (asked for 50 but shop ran out - LOL) plus 30m of a slightly smaller dia for the kedge but which also could be attached to make ~80m onthe main.

Talking about tube colours with the dolphins, they all seemed to be grouped around our boat with very little near the other two (grey) boats.

[Erin]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Talking about tube colours with the dolphins, they all seemed to be grouped around our boat with very little near the other two (grey) boats.

I see, so it must be Vipermax's that interest them. They're obviously in awe of their wonderfulness, which is a bit ironic seeing as that's how we view the dolphins

So there was only three boats was there. Our foreign counterparts obviously don't know how to organise a proper rib cruise do they!

I think Ive got 10m chain and 30m mainwarp on my anchor with a spare 10m if necessary.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Erin

I see, so it must be Vipermax's that interest them. They're obviously in awe of their wonderfulness, which is a bit ironic seeing as that's how we view the dolphins

So there was only three boats was there. Our foreign counterparts obviously don't know how to organise a proper rib cruise do they!

Yep, it's got to be the Vmax underwater profile that intrigues them

Yeah it was a shame there were only the three of us, a brand new Pro Open 650, and a Lomac 580, both with 5 people each The seas were fairly lumpy but the Lomac found it quite hard going so moved their two wives onto our boat and proceeded a little faster at 20knts. Fully fueled however and with two engines, four passengers and a tender on board Into the Red was struggling to plane at this speed, and a very wet and bumpy ride ensued! It would have been very interesting to see how a 5.8 Vmax would have coped in the seas, for in the conditions we would have been at normal 35knt cruising speed and it would be interesting to see if that boat could keep pace with us. As we left, we spent a long time with the dolphins giving the other boats a good headstart before we caught up at 35knt cruise. All in all a very good day, unfortunately though the etec burnt 80litres over ~35miles just goes to show how inefficient a boat is at displacement speed

[gotchiguy]

[YOUTUBE]LxHkZqM3ptQ[/YOUTUBE]

Try to ignore Gotchidad and the two frenchies in the back


Edit: Thats my hand

[martini]

Extraordinary!

[Jizm]

Originally Posted by martini

Extraordinary!

Keep it straight!

[Erin]

We're all like excited children when we see them, no matter our age! Another great video.