Up Close and Personal

 A rare opportunity presented itself yesterday when a friend asked if I'd like to join him on trip out to Strumble on his boat. No need to ask my reply, "of course" I said. So with camera safely on board we set off at a fair turn of speed and within 15 minutes we were below the lookout. The trip served two purposes, to educate my friend about the tides at Strumble and secondly to try and see if I could get some pics of the porpoise.  I studied the tide race for a while and when explaining the tide flows was looking to see if there were any porpoise there. Sure enough a few fins could be seen further up the tide race. 

In order not to disturb the porpoise feeding we set the boat just at the edge of the tide race close to the lighthouse and cut the engine to drift with the tide in silence. As we moved along the porpoise now swiming up against the flow were  quickly upon and past us. If I thought catching them from the shore was difficult at times this was of a different order of difficulty. With their speed plus the speed of our drift and the motion of the boat it was very hard indeed. 

The important issue though was not how many images I could get but whether or not we would disturb their feeding. I'm glad to say they didn't give us a second glance and carried on as if we weren't there. We repeated the manoeuvre twice more and I considered that enough for that session so we made our way out of the area at slow speed until well clear and enjoyed some time dipping a line and enjoying the afternoon sun before returning home.