Sunset and Skuas

During our sunset cruise on Wednesday 8th August, we stumbled upon a beautiful Great Skua (Bonxie) as we were heading to the Longstone Lighthouse. In fact it was our newest crew member to the Serenity Team, Chris who spotted it and causally asked me what was that bird eating. As I glanced over I saw a Great Skua feasting on a young Kittiwake. Yes, I know its not nice to see but its nature and was more bothered about the skua than the bird it was eating.

Now you might know by now that I do like skuas as there is just something about them that does it for me. That's sounds so perverse but not in that way of course. Its just the bird itself that I like and on the sunset cruise it was looking even better in the evening light. As we got closer and closer it was not bothered about us at all, but when we got a bit to close, it eventually did fly away but only went a short distance as it was not leaving easy food lying in the water and who can blame it.

After taking a few pictures and explaining to the guests about the bird, we continued with the trip around the islands while enjoying the beautiful sunlight on the seals, seabirds and of course a great sunset behind Bamburgh Castle. The light  (the golden hour) sometimes is just so lovely, it shows the

As you might already know I do enjoy the sunset cruises and if everything goes to plan you can't beat it ending with a cracking sunset behind the castle, and even if you don't get the sunset then there is something about the evening cruises I love.

Ok here is some pictures for you and sometimes I think the pictures explain things better than I can.

Once again thank you for reading our blog

OVER AND OUT

The Mighty Gannet

I could not help myself today and I decided to go out again to see all the birds.

With a handful of guests and a friend to join me we went out in search of the rare bird or a Minkie Whale.

On the way out we could see thousands of Gannets in the sky so it was not hard to guess where we were going. With calm sea's and blue skies it was not hard to enjoy every moment of this trip.

The Gannets stole the show today and their was not as many Sooty Shearwaters today as there were yesterday and all I can put that down to is the wind. Never mind we still got Bonxie's, Artic Skua's, Fulmers, Gulliemots and lots of Seals.

I think the pictures will tell the rest of the story. 

WHALE OF A TIME (Part 2) Minke Whale

Continued from Part 1

When we get back onto the Helicopter I will get the pilot to have a look around for you and if we see anything we will give you a call on channel 67. I thanked him kindly and off they went.

They were only away a few seconds when he shouted on the VHF and told me there were a big gathering of birds and he could see Harbour Porpoise.

I turned the boat and headed towards the flock of birds but we were not even close when a Minke Whale broke the surface. A customer shouted it's on the left hand side about 400 yards away going south. I quickly turned and steamed south towards the Whale when it broke the surface again. We started counting how many times it was taking air before it dived and it was 3 to 4 times. Great, so I grabbed my camera as it was down for a while but I was ready for it. Click Click. I got it.

We followed it for about 15 minutes and it disappeared so we decided to head back north towards the big flock of birds that were still there. We were just about to turn and the Minke broke the surface again but this time it was even closer. That's it I said to myself. Lets get really close so everyone can get a good picture. It didn't just come a little closer but right beside the boat.

When I looked at my chart to see where we were and we had followed the Minke 5 miles south and after everyone had good views and pictures of the Minke we turned said goodbye and steamed slowly north.

While we were cruising north we passed 2 Pufflings and an adult Puffin in full moult. There were lots of Guillemots, Gulls, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Arctic Terns, Manx Shearwaters and another Arctic Skua. Keith said there was a Manx resting on the water so we went a little closer to get some nice pictures when Keith shouted................

To be countinued.....

A WHALE OF A TIME (Part 1) The RAF Rescue Team

We were supposed to doing a Whale Watching Trip last Saturday 10th, but we decided to cancel it due to bad weather and I was so pleased we did as we rescheduled it for Saturday17th and trip and weather were just amazing.

We had S.E. Winds on Friday so there was a heavy slow swell in the water, but as the day went on the swell disappeared.

Dunstanburgh Castle

We steamed slowly down towards Craster we passed a Great Skua and a Arctic Skua flying north and about 30+ Wigeon also flying north. On arriving at Craster we encounter 5 Harbour Porpoise showing really well. After spending a little while watching them, we steamed out towards the deeper water.

While we were steaming out the deeper water the RAF Boulmer Helicopter flew passed our port side and flew over an Angling Boat, then all of a sudden it turned around and headed towards us. The next thing I heard was my boats name being called on channel 16 on the VHF.
 It was the RAF Helicopter asking me if I could turn to channel 67. On doing so they asked me if it was OK to lower someone on the boat for some practice. After agreeing they give me a compass bearing of 280 degrees and told me to go 6 knots.
 Keith told all of our customers to gather there bags and move closer towards the wheelhouse. When all of our customers were beside the wheelhouse they started to lower the first person, and then the other came down. The second person was a dentist, who was being trained by the RAF. (I don't think he enjoyed it very much)

When the Helicopter was above the boat the noise, wind and spray are unbelievable. Bud, my dog was shaking like a leaf in the wheelhouse, but the customers loved it.

Just before they were about to leave one of the men came to the wheelhouse and said thank you very much for helping him with the excercise. As we shook hands he turned and said to me........................................

To be continued

Pelagic Trip

Well we had our first Pelagic Trip today and we could have not asked for a better day.
We headed out at 10.30am with the sun shinning and a little S.W. Wind, we decided to go south along the coast as the wind was a little chilly and I thought if we have an hour of this then we will have it on our backs as we head out.

Just as we got past Craster we came across 2 Harbour Porpoise showing really well. It was about that time we turned and headed out to sea and just as we did Keith spotted a Bonxie. As I grabbed my camera in a hurry I must have knocked my battery clip and out popped the battery, so by the time I got it back in it was to far away.

Along the way out we were really surprised on how many Guilliemot chicks and their fathers, Pufflings and Arctic Terns we saw. It was not far from there that we saw lots of Gannets circling and then other pair of Harbour Porpoise. This time it was an adult and a teenager and again showing well.

As we got out to the Farne Deeps we were greeted with lots of Kittiwakes, Guilliemots, Arctic Terns, Puffins, Gannets and 4 Arctic Skua's, but the best of all was Manx Shearwaters with a group of 12 just sitting on the water.

As we cruised north passing large numbers of feeding birds. slowing everytime hoping to see any Dolphins or Whales but with no joy.

We kept on going until we arrived at the Longstone Island where we were greeted by loads of Seals, Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers and over 300 Golden Plovers.

Overall we had a great day and there is always next time. A big thank you to everyone who joined Serenity today.

We only have a few spaces left for our next trip so don't miss out.