It was a ‘pick a nice moment and run with it’ kind of week. Or month. Or, let’s face it, year. But I had a few hours of not sun but not rain either and that was enough for me, so I decided to head down to Sandon Point with the idea that I’d stick my face into the rock pools. As soon as I got to the bottom of the steps though, I quickly realised all my plans were going to be thrown out. The high tide line looked as though it had been sprinkled with a delicate, blue snow, but on closer inspection, it became clear that I was looking at a huge swarm of bluebottles and, even better, a couple of other members of the Blue Fleet had also been washed ashore.

The 'Blue Fleet' is the name given to the ocean-going species that travel together, moved along by the wind, and as a result are often washed up together. While small nudibranchs known as blue dragons or blue angels (Glaucus atlanticus), and blue buttons (Porpita porpita) weren’t in this stranding, I found huge numbers of bluebottles (Physalia utriculus), hundreds of by-the-wind-sailors (Velella velella) and a handful of violet snails (Janthina janthina).

Everyone knows to steer clear of the bluebottles due to the painful sting caused by their long tentacles but in the ocean the float stays above the water while the tentacles hang down into the water to catch any unsuspecting larval fish or crustaceans. But it’s a good idea to be careful with other members of this travelling flotilla as they can cause mild irritation through to stinging as well. The blue dragons, for example, eat bluebottles (and that’s why they’re often found with them, free food!), take the stinging cells from the bluebottles and use them as a form of self defence!

And while the violet snails look really pretty and also pretty harmless, they also feed on bluebottles and by-the-wind-sailors. If you look closely, you’ll see a raft of bubbles coming out from the shell. When I used to play with garden snails as a kid, sighting any bubbles coming from the shell was a BAD sign. But these snails make the bubbles from mucous and use them as a raft to float upside down, along the surface of the ocean.

The by-the-wind sailors (hats off to the author of that common name) are, like bluebottles, left-handed or right-handed, meaning their sail – or in the case of the bluebottle, their float – is right or left-facing. Depending on which way the wind is blowing, different individuals are washed ashore at different times. While any big seas can bring these ocean-goers to shore, we usually see larger strandings after north-easterly winds.

It's definitely worth scouring the next big bluebottle stranding for any other members of the Blue Fleet. But remember, look but don't touch.