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Category: North Sea

Posting by proxy; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 01/08/18

Friday 27th was the first of our 4hr evening pelagics this year to fall victim to the weather, so it was great to see a much better forecast for the start of August…unfortunately I found myself having an unexpected few days in hospital so Steve and Paul organised our clients at the start of the trip and acted as onboard guides 🙂

White-beaked Dolphins put in an appearance off North Blyth and then in the mouth of the Tyne on a dark wet evening, and I was getting notifications about the sightings while laid in a hospital bed 🙂

We’ve still got a few places available on our 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic sailings on August 29th, September 15th and September 22nd so give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your place 🙂

Here are a few images of White-beaked Dolphins on sailings over the last few years…

05/08/2018
Sunset and Moonrise gallery; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 25/07/18

05/08/2018
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the south 😉 NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 20/07/18

With a glassy calm river outside the marina, and a great forecast for the evening (after the rain had passed a couple of hour earlier), we had a dilemma. Allan had seen a group of White-beaked Dolphins in the deep south (or County Durham as its residents call it…) a couple of hours earlier so were we going to change our sailing plan that has served us well for over 20 years and turn right as we passed through the Tyne Piers?

We hadn’t even left the river when a Harbour Porpoise appeared and by then we’d already decided to ‘head south for a bit and turn north if we don’t find anything’. Ten minutes later I was scanning directly ahead and spotted a couple of fins…

All of our 4hr evening pelagics are fully booked now but we’ve still got a few spaces on our groundbreaking Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic sailings on August 29th, September 15th and September 22nd. Those are filling up too, so give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your place 🙂

21/07/2018
Quick start 🙂 NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 18/07/18

There are days when we search for a long time before finding the wildlife that we’re searching for, there are days when despite our best efforts it eludes us, and then there was last night…

Conditions were looking good with cloud cover and gentle swell so exactly what we’d hope for when we’re searching for dolphins. We’re doing cetacean surveys on all of our pelagic trips this year and Caroline and Genine had only just started recording the environmental conditions, as we settled on to a steady course, when Tim spotted dolphins ahead of the boat 🙂 This first group of 5 White-beaked Dolphins buzzed the boat a couple of times but were clearly on a mission and quickly departed to the south. We resumed our original course and passed by Kittiwakes, Gannets and Guillemots before eventually turning back south as the Sun sank lower in the sky towards a slight break in the cloud. The swell was building, and the gloom of dusk was taking hold when our second group of White-beaked Dolphins for the evening appeared, and these ones were in a much more playful mood 🙂

All of our 4hr evening sailings apart from August 8th are full and our 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic on August 14th has sold out too. We’ve got a few spaces on our 10hr sailings on August 29th, September 15th and September 22nd so give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your place. We only have limited availability on our sailings so booking early is always the best option to make sure you get a place!

19/07/2018
A series of spectacular sunsets; NEWT’s North Sea Pelagics 04/07, 06/07 and 13/07/18

Some of our North Sea pelagic trips encounter whales and dolphins and lots of birds…and some don’t. Sometimes the most jaw-dropping thing isn’t the wildlife, but something equally unpredictable…

Our 4hr evening sailings on 1st and 8th August still have a very limited number of spaces available, as do our 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic sailings on August 29th, September 15th and September 22nd. Every other sailing is fully booked so give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your space before they’re all gone!

17/07/2018
Here come the White-beaks 🙂 NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 11/07/18

Wednesday was our 5th evening pelagic this year and after Bottlenose Dolphins putting in a good shift on our 2nd sailing, followed by a coupe of stunning sunsets last week, the question on everyone’s lips was “Will England make it to the World Cup final?”…

A few scattered whitecaps and a bit of swell, combined with a lot of glare, make observing tricky and we scanned every flock of gulls and Gannets as we headed north. Fulmars and Manx Shearwaters passed by on stiff wings, low over the sea and a flock of Common Scoter went north ahead of us. As we turned back south, having the sun behind us helped, as did the gradual decrease in the sea state and swell. Scanning along a tide line towards a distant flock of diving Gannets I almost dropped my binoculars as a White-beaked Dolphin started breaching repeatedly away to the east of us. As everyone else started looking in the same direction, the dolphin unobligingly failed to breach again…but the distinctive dorsal fins and slow diving behaviour of five White-beaked Dolphins more than made up for that 🙂

We’re steadily filling all of our sailings for this year, but we’ve still got as few spaces on our 4hr evening sailings on July 18th and August 1st/8th as well as our 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic sailings on September 15th, 19th and 22nd. Give us a call on 01670 827465 or visit our pelagic page for more information or to book.

13/07/2018
Dolphins; NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 29/06/18

Our second 4hr evening pelagic of 2018 came a couple of days after our first – which had been a trip with more swell than expected and only a single sighting of a Bottlenose Dolphin that didn’t hang around to be admired by all on board…

Friday’s forecast was much better though and I knew that a group of around 12 dolphins had been seen off Newbiggin mid-afternoon. As we sailed out of the Tyne I checked my messages, and discovered that the dolphins were making their way south down the coast so we were likely to encounter them somewhere off Whitley Bay. Eventually we had around 25-30 Bottlenose Dolphins playing around the boat, including some that were catching fish and a few small groups with very young calves 🙂

We’ve got spaces still available on our 4hr sailings each Wednesday until August 8th and on our 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic‘ sailings on 15th, 19th and 22nd September. Give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your place before they’re all filled!

02/07/2018
Baby steps; NEWT’s Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic 02/09/17

Our third 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic‘ for this year brought a remarkable encounter with White-beaked Dolphins, although not out in the Farne Deeps where sightings were brief. Just a few miles from the NEWT office, as the crow flies, we found three dolphins, including a mother and a neonate which she was helping to the surface when it was time for it to breathe!

11/09/2017
Dolphin days; NEWT’s Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic 26/08/17

With a forecast of light westerlies and good weather, I arrived at Royal Quays ahead of our 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic confident that we’d have a memorable day offshore…

Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwake, Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin, Manx Shearwater, Great Skua and Arctic Skua all gave obliging views and then we started finding Minke Whales 🙂 Continuing northeast I was sitting alongside Allan in the wheelhouse and noticed some distant splashing – and there were six White-beaked Dolphins heading toward us! More dolphins followed and we finished the day with a total of 3 Minke Whales, 6 Harbour Porpoise and 37 White-beaked Dolphins 🙂

We’ve got a few spaces available for our next 10hr sailing from Royal Quays (08:00, Saturday 2nd September), so give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your space before they’re gone!

28/08/2017
Fade to black; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 11/08/17

As we gathered at Royal Quays for our final 4hr evening pelagic for this year, ahead of our switch to 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic’ sailings from next Wednesday, there was a stiff breeze, but it was coming off the land so not a great problem for a sailing where we were planning to stay fairly close inshore…

The sea was calmer than it’s been on any of our trips so far this year, but all around the sky was threatening to do something and we did catch the edge of a shower at one point. Fulmars, Gannets and Kittiwakes passed by, Guillemots were on the water with young and Russ spotted the dorsal fin of a dolphin but it seems to have been on a mission to be elsewhere as it didn’t hang around.

That’s it for 4hr evening sailings until next June, but we’ve still got a few places on all of our 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic’ trips. Give us a call on 01670 827465 to book your place before they’re all gone!

12/08/2017

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