The next four hours saw a very gradual deterioration of the weather. Unknown to Ozzie the wind continued pushing him westwards, and the cloud was dropping lower. So was Ozzie, trying to get under it and hoping for better visibility. He got  an extra kilometre or so of visibility, but his horizon had lowered too. At four minutes to three Ozzie passed Ile d'Ouessant on the Finistère peninsular of France nine kilometres to his left, but he didn't see it. He had missed his landfall and was now heading out into the Bay of Biscay. At six minutes past six at a latitude of 47.6° N, 5.3° W, the Plymouth to Santander ferry was steaming south. On board a group of naturalists were scanning the sea for whales, dolphins and seabirds. One spotted Ozzie flying about 15 metres above the waves.

He was momentarily stumped as to the identity of this strange huge sea-bird. Then memory took over and despite the unusual circumstances he correctly shouted 'Osprey!' to the amazement of his colleagues. As the Osprey gradually overhauled the ship the naturalists discussed the chances of the bird ever making it to land.
'Not before nightfall, if at all', was the sad conclusion.

Ospreys fitted with satellite tracking systems have revealed they can make long sea crossings over the Bay of Biscay to Spain. Another revelation is that they can fly all night if they have to. One bird on spring migration flew from Spain over the sea past Ireland and way out into the Atlantic Ocean before correcting his route and flying back into Scotland!