A couple on a boating trip were delighted to be joined by three dolphins who swam and played around their catamaran.

Russell and Dawn Austin, of First Avenue, Hove, were on their way back to Shoreham from Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne, in their 27ft boat Tiddles when they saw the playful creatures.

Mr Austin, a self-employed mechanic, said: "There was no wind so we were motoring across Seaford Bay.

"My wife was at the helm and I was asleep on the back of the boat when I heard her shouting to me. I went to the front and saw the dolphins surfing our bow wave.

"They played there for four or five minutes and then disappeared. We thought they had gone but they came back again."

The couple spent about 20 minutes sailing in circles around the bay with the dolphins frolicking around them. They managed to capture the creatures on film.

Mr Austin said: "Sometimes they were leaping up in the air and sometimes they were surfing the bow wave. They were very fast. We were doing a steady five knots and they were going at least two or three times as fast as us.

"It looked as though there were two adults and one juvenile. The adults were about 12ft long and the young one about half that size.

"They had pale grey stomachs and dark grey backs and sickle-shaped tails."

Mr Austin said it was his first close encounter with a dolphin, though he had glimpsed them in the distance a few times.

He said: "It is very unusual to see them so far east. It was absolutely fascinating. It is not often you get wild animals coming so close to you."