N51 47', W10 18'. Wind F6-F7, swell 6m, sea temp. 11.5C, air temp 10C. Depth 450m. 150nm west of Dursey Island, Co. Cork.
It was a quiet morning over the abyssal plain, but conditionals were marginal for carrying out visual surveys. We persisted nonetheless with the help of Ipods (shuffled song of the day: Pearl Jam, All Those Yesterdays). 4 hours watch in the morning produced just one group of 9 pilot whales which approached the ship head-on at speed before diving away. They were heard clearly on the hydrophone. After lunch about 10nm from the Porcupine Bank shelf-break the sun lit up a whale beneath the surface to our port side (conveniently enough, as the glare to the starboard was awful). A big blunt square head, forward blow and wrinkled skin indicated sperm whale, then another, and more - 5 in total spread over an area of about 500 square metres. They were logging on the surface in 3000m of water, probably recovering after a long dive. This is the largest group of sperm whales I have seen, although not unprecedented in Ireland.
Later on we had a couple of small groups of very enthusiastic bow-riding common dolphins, using the bow wave as a springboard, particularly on the larger swells. Emily recorded gannets, fulmar, great skua, kittiwake, and puffin.There was a gang of great skuas on patrol which seemed to check-in regularly throughout the day before keeping their distance again.
Tomorrow morning we should find ourselves inshore along the West Cork coast, steaming northeast for Cork Harbour with an ETA of about 1400. The wind is forecast to be on our backs yet again so it should make for comfortable sailing.
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