We sailed back across the channel from Belgium about 4 weeks ago and they spent a couple of hours buzzing the boat. There were 4 or 5 in the group (is it a school or a pod?). Amazing sight as the raced each other either side of the hulls and crossed underneath. With a lower freeboard I could have touched their backs as they were alongside. They must have heard us from some way off, we saw their fins racing towards us at an incredible speed from about 1/4 mile away. A never-to-be-forgotten moment.
I had a group of about 10-15 round my boat off Pole sand (Exe) on Good Friday. Dolphins are quite a poular sight along the SW coast but it sounds like, by this post, they are not often seen around the Solent ?