What a year 2014 was.....

What a great year for being on the water 2014 was and I'm hoping and praying it is the same for 2015.

The year started with some dreadful weather but luckily for the people living in Northumberland we never really had it as bad as the guys on the south coast.

I always remember watching the news and seeing all the floods everywhere and thinking that I'm really lucky living where I do.

People tend to think that because I live up north that its really cold, wet and miserable but in fact they could not be more wrong. For some reason Seahouses seems to get away with everything. Yes we don't get the hot weather you get in the south in the summer but its really nice and pleasant here. We don't get hardly any snow and if we do it tends to be gone in a day or so and for some reason we don't get a lot of rain either and that has something to do with the Cheviot Hills.
The more and more I think about it we are really lucky here and that's the way I like it.

During the bad weather period and trying to get the boats ready for the season we had a Grey Phalarope for a good while at Stag Rock and it was giving everyone a really good show and for me I could not have started the year of better with a cracking bird and one so accommodating.

  
During the bad weather myself and the family went on holiday to Cape Verde where I saw some cracking birds and the one that topped the bill was the Cream-coloured Courier and when I went back a bit later I saw my first Pilot Whales and Brown Booby.

  
After my holidays it was back on Serenity II to start my season's adventures around the Farnes and once again it produced it all.

The Bottlenose Dolphins stole the show this year and they wowed myself and made a lot of my guests very happy.

Then there was the phone call from Laura who was on the Inner Farne saying that I could go out and see the Bluethroat after the day was over.

I could not drop Andy (my crewman) of quicker to get back out to see this beautiful bird.

 
After that we had the charming Lolo Williams onboard the boat with his film crew. Ron our skipper for the diving boat could not help himself and he photo bombed Andy. A very funny moment for us but not for Andy. You had to be there.

Just after they had finished filming and got back to the harbour the Bottlenose Dolphins arrived again but they were on a time schedule so they did not go back out to see them.
Ron decided to go out and he grabbed Sue who works in the booking office for us and the look on her face made my day.

Thanks for helping us this year Sue. Unfortunately, all the other girls in the booking office never got a chance to see them and they were really disappointed but fingers crossed for next year.

  
We had some great Sunset Cruises and with some really good company too.

I was also invited out to the Inner Farne to watch the guys doing some ringing which was really interesting and it was nice to see the rangers doing their, behind the scenes work instead of just catching my rope. Thanks guys for letting me enjoy this experience as I will never forget it.

 

 

We had a cracking Minkie Whale around the boat but over all it was a very quite season for the Minkie's.

but I did have the pleasure of witnessing a basking shark around the boat.

I also witnessed fish jumping out of the water near the Pinnacles and after talking to David and Laura from the Farnes we come to the conclusion that it was a young seal swimming past them and that why they were jumping out of the water.

We had a couple of great winter wildlife trips and the weather was kind to us to. The Long-tailed Ducks, Little Auk and the Red-necked Grebe were the stars of those trips but that's not to say that seeing hundreds of Oystercatchers take off together was not special.

 

and to finish the season off we have had a Black-necked Grebe and Little Auk in the harbour.

I have also been out over the last few days with trips around the Farnes and noticed lots of seal pups around and loads are new borns too. The seals are slowly starting to move closer and closer towards the Inner Farne and the Wideopens and who can blame them as those Islands are a lot more sheltered.
This seal pup below was on the end of the Longstone Island so I hope it will be ok.

Enjoying the shelter on the Inner Farne beach

The mother is never to far away.

A bit of ginger going on here.

A peregrine falcon on the Pele Tower

and a bit of Stag Rock Lighthouse to finish off my year.

I would also like to thank everyone who has joined me this year and thank you for all your votes for the blog awards.

I would like to thank David Steel and his gang for their help this year.

Most of all to Andy (crewman) for putting up with me 7 days a week, Tony (crewman) for putting up with everything that's been thrown at him and the girls in the booking office. If it was not for them we would not be here today, so a big thank you to Barbra, Louise, Ruth, Sue and Christine. Also to Ron who always knows when I'm lying to him because my lips are moving.

Cheers guys for all your hard work throughout the season. Your worth your weight in gold.

Here's to 2015 and I hope you all have a good one. Thanks from everyone at Serenity Farne Island Boat Tours.