Wednesday 25 October 2017

Humpback Whale

On Tuesday 24th October we left the harbour at 10.15am with handful of passengers on board the boat.
Its the start of the seal season and children on board were excited to see the new born pups. Saying that I think some of the adults were just as excited as the kids were.
The weather was ok but you can feel that winter is not far away from us now as the temperature out at sea is starting to drop so the 1.5 hour trip is just enough for the kids before they start getting to cold.

We were on our way to see the seals which were on the north side of Big Harcar not far from the Longstone Lighthouse when all of a sudden Andy my crewman jumped out of his seat screaming a whale has just breached in front of us.
We both ran outside and told our guests that we have just seen a whale breach in front of the boat. I had hardly got the words out of my mouth when it happened again. It happened so quick that we did not even get a chance to get a picture or a video but we both looked at each other and said WOW.
In all my years at the Farnes I have never seen anything like it. To see anything kind of whale is amazing but to see a Humpback Whale breach clean out of the water in front of the boat was.... in fact is..... the best thing I have ever seen.
I was shaking like a leaf and I thought Andy was going to have a heart attack. Not all of our guests seen this wonder but most of them did and they were smiling from ear to ear.

To see such a wonderful creature in our waters around the Farne Islands will be something myself and Andy will never ever forget and when we talked about it today it was all over in about 30 seconds but it was the best 30 seconds ever.

This is not my picture but its just to show you what we saw and what a fantastic record for the Farnes



Monday 9 October 2017

Pupping season begins

Today we not only saw the 1st seal pup on the rocks but we also spotted a 2nd one.

Finally the seal season is underway and lets hope it's another good one like last year.
A few weeks ago my brother spotted one on the Longstone Island but unfortunately it had pasted away, which was such a crying shame as it looked big too and the weather had not been bad at all but I suppose that's nature for you. 

Anyway the ones we saw today looked in better health and one was even feeding from its mother and the other looked a good bit bigger so it must be a good few days old.

Exciting times are now ahead of us and I love seeing the pups as they are really cute so lets hope they all go up and live long and healthy lives.



It will not be long before they are playing with the divers and showing off to our guests on board Serenity.

We also have been spotting a good few tags this year but once again they are not the best and the numbers rub off which is really annoying. Never mind we still have got a few. Andy my crewman spotted this one today which was a great spot too.


A few of last years pups were enjoying the little bit of sunshine too. These little fella's are about 10/11 months old now and enjoying life to its fullest. 



Once again thank you for reading this blog 

OVER AND OUT