Picos de Europa trip report: the journey south

Agreeing on the destination for family holidays has been a bit of an issue for us in recent years: I have been lobbying for the Picos de Europa for some time, but my wife had flatly ruled this out this year, holding out for more distant locations. Her job as Director of the Purbeck Film Festival makes taking time off difficult from mid-July through to November, so this year we had a fairly narrow window of opportunity to get away between the end of A-level exams for our youngest son on 20 June and the graduation ceremony for our eldest on 10 July.

Common Dolphin, Bay of Biscay

Ocean Sunfish, North Biscay

As of 21 June we still had no plan and it looked like there would be no family holiday at all. When I expressed some frustration and concern about this over breakfast to my wife she said 'I thought you wanted to go to the Picos?' I was about to say 'BUT YOU FLATLY RULED THAT OUT!' when I realised that the best course of action at that point was to bite my lip and start making plans - and quickly before there was any change of heart. So instead I said 'You do accommodation, I'll do ferries'. 

Common Dolphin, Bay of Biscay

Common Dolphin, Bay of Biscay

I was pleased to find that the Portsmouth-Bilboa sailing on Thursday 26th June still had availability, and if we could find 10 days accommodation we could get the return sailing on 8th July, arriving back late on the 9th just in time for the graduation ceremony in Bristol on 10th. Foolishly, when I got the first price quotation from Brittany Ferries I didn't book it straight away as I was checking other options. The algorithm then seemed to bump the price up when I went back to confirm the booking. Anyway, £1,200 for a return sailing with car and 4 passengers with cabins both ways (for 2 nights on the way out and 1 night on the way back) didn't seem too unreasonable, especially as it would negate the need to incur hire car costs at the other end. 

Cory's Shearwater, Bay of Biscay

Cory's Shearwater, Bay of Biscay

In the end just 3 of us travelled as the eldest son was unable to negotiate time off work as we had hoped, and we had booked too late to get a refund on his share of the ticket price (which fortunately wasn't too much). We can get to Portsmouth in less than 90 mins from our home in Wareham so a few days later after some hasty planning, packing and checking of passports we were heading east to the port for a 19:00 departure. 

Bottlenose Dolphin, Bay of Biscay

Bottlenose Dolphin, Bay of Biscay

The first beer of the trip was ordered from the ferry bar as we steamed out of Portsmouth and after a decent meal in the a la carte restaurant on board I got an early night so that I could be up on deck early the following morning for some seawatching. The Portsmouth-Bilboa and Plymouth-Santander routes have a long-standing reputation for cetacean sightings and although the peak for sightings is later in July and August, there was still a good chance of seeing something in late June. 

Common Dolphin with juvenile, Bay of Biscay

Common Dolphin about to go under the ship

A spotter, Leonie, from the marine conservation charity ORCA was on board, and I soon made her acquaintance and took her advice on the best times to be looking for cetaceans. The morning of Friday 27th July was not one of them but I was on deck at dawn anyway, only to find a thick mizzle rendering seawatching pretty much impossible. I retired to bed again and after a reasonably priced cooked breakfast in the on-board cafe and was back on deck just before 10:00 as we cut the corner between the island of Ouessant and the French mainland before turning south towards Biscay. Visibility had improved enough to pick out a few Manx Shearwater in the inshore waters.

Noticed this photo amongst many Common Dolphin images after I got home - an odd shaped Dolphin fin or something more interesting?

Map of the route aboard the Galicia

I was joined by Claire and Rowan late morning and the first good sighting of the trip was chalked up just after noon when Claire pointed out a couple of Ocean Sunfish close to the ship, and I picked up the first Cory's Shearwater of many on the way south at 14:21. Leonie had advised that things should pick up from about 15:00 on the Friday as we reached the continental shelf and, sure enough, the first Common Dolphin (presumed Short-beaked) appeared within minutes of this milestone. It took a few more hours to add the next cetacean to the trip list when a small pod of Bottlenose Dolphin entertained us for a few minutes from 18:19. Another Sunfish was also noted.

It takes a lot to get my family seawatching...

...but 500+ Dolphins will do it!

From mid-afternoon we were sailing in bright sunshine and Common Dolphin numbers continued to rise, so we had a quick early evening meal to maximise time on deck. Over the next few hours we were treated to a spectacle of many Common Dolphin around the ship - Leonie estimated c500-700 for the day - frequently breaching and providing excellent photo opportunities. Then at 20:15, just as the Dolphin activity seemed to have subsided, I picked up a small pod (3 individuals) of a whale species - I confess I had no idea what species they were but Leonie said they were Beaked Whales - either Cuvier's or Sowerby's - but the distance meant they could not be confirmed to species level, even with my photos. Although Cuvier's was probably the more likely, frustratingly, they had to be recorded as 'Beaked Whale sp' only. 

Beaked Whale species, Bay of Biscay

Beaked Whale species, Bay of Biscay

I was up again early the following morning of Saturday 28th June but we were only 2 hours out from the Spanish coast by this point and I could only add more Common Dolphin and Cory's Shearwater to the trip list. Although it had perhaps been a case of quantity rather than quality, the journey had been an excellent introduction to the Bay of Biscay, and a very enjoyable way to get to Northern Spain. We could see some impressive mountains looming above the clouds and looked forward to heading for them later that day.

Biscay sunset