Making Memories: Wildlife Watching Boat Trips With Wavehunters

Whether you are a wildlife or bird-watching enthusiast, or on a family holiday looking for a fun day out with your children or grandchildren, one of the most incredible and memorable things to do during your stay in Port Isaac is to hop on a boat trip with Wavehunters – and guests of Port Isaac Bay Holidays can do so with a 25% discount!

Wavehunters was founded in Port Isaac as a surf lodge and surf school back in 2002, and over the last 23 years they’ve developed to include surf schools at Polzeath and Watergate Bay, the Rock-Padstow evening water taxi, and for the last ten years wildlife-watching boat trips aboard their fleet of three 10 metre RIB (rigid-inflatable) powerboats.

Seeing this stretch of stunning coastline from the sea is an unforgettable experience as you see the cliffs and islands from a completely new perspective, and coming in and out of Port Isaac by boat gives you a whole new perspective on this historic harbour village. For years and years, this was a view of the village that only the local fisherman got to enjoy.

Wavehunters boat trips can visit Port Isaac and private charters over 90 minutes long can also depart from and return to Port Isaac (if you want to enjoy this experience from within walking distance of your accommodation) as long as the tides are right for that day – they can only board and disembark passengers in the harbour at certain stages of tide!

Otherwise, all of their regular trips run from nearby Rock, a twenty-minute drive away, and they also collect passengers from Padstow on the other side of the estuary. Rock pontoon has good access for customers with limited mobility.

From Rock the boats head out of the Camel Estuary, past Brea Hill and Daymer Bay on the right and Hawkers Cove and Stepper Point on the left, before heading around the iconic Pentire Point towards The Rumps and Mouls Island.

The stretch of coast from here to Port Isaac and beyond to Tintagel is Port Isaac Bay, and it is home to a remarkable array of wildlife both in and above the water.

Through late spring and early summer countless seabirds including guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and puffins nest on the cliffs and islands here. The puffins are only temporary visitors, as they only come ashore in breeding season to nest and hatch their young before returning to sea for the rest of the year. Many others stick around, though, but their peak numbers (and peak noise!) is during this period. Alongside these seabirds you will also see diving birds such as cormorants and shags, many gulls, and bright white gannets whose diving into the sea often indicates the presence of dolphins.

In the summer dolphins are a regular sight, with some of them often coming alongside the boats and putting on incredible breaching displays as they jump out of the water. Rarer sights are some of the whale species that inhabit or pass through these waters, such as minke whales or, over the winter months, enormous humpback whales, or Sunfish – slow and gentle giants up to 3 meters long that are the heaviest bony fish in the world.

More common marine mammals who are permanent residents on the remote and inaccessible parts of this coastline are Atlantic Grey Seals. They will often haul out onto the rocks to rest, although they are very well camouflaged!

As well as the obvious opportunity to spot incredible wildlife on a boat trip, are the unique views of the coast and – for children and teenagers in particular – the excitement of a powerboat ride.

A holiday to Port Isaac can be memorable for so many good reasons. A boat trip with Wavehunters will almost certainly be a highlight of your holiday that you’ll remember and recount for many years to come.

Wavehunters offer the following boat trips from Rock and Padstow:

• 1 hour Puffin trips (late afternoons, in season)

• 90 minute Safaris

• 2 hour Safaris

• 3 hour Safaris

• Visit Port Isaac by Sea (from Rock or Padstow - get dropped off in Port Isaac for ice-cream or coffee and a walk-around, and then get back on the boat to head back)

They also offer private charters if there is a group of you and you wish to set your own timings and itinerary.

• 1-hour charters from Rock or Padstow

• 90 minute, 2 hour, and 3 hour charters all available from Rock, Padstow or Port Isaac (Port Isaac is tide dependant)

Before you can book your boat trip with Wavehunters, you need ot book your holiday to Port Isaac!