Boatman's Holiday

Kathy and John were diving of little Cumbrae this Saturday. Guess who was on boatman duty... in the rain.

We sped out to Trail Island in the early afternoon, and I watched the birds as Kat and John went through their buddy checks. Then we tucked in close to Little Cumbrae and the guys "gracefully" dropped into the water.

This grey seal was alerted by our approach and slipped into the water as I dropped off the divers.

Kathy makes friends easily...

And then, they were gone. And I was left alone with the feeding seabirds. There must have been plenty of fish about as the birds were going nuts. These were joined by plenty of harbour porpoises. I kept my eyes open for minkies, but no such luck.

The real stars of the day were the manxies, around 400 circled the diving gannets and bobbing guillemots.

The little rib is great for watching shearwaters, which streamed past, oblivious.

Kicking the boat from drive to neutral I was able to inch into the path of the Manxies

On the way back, We were passed by a party of harbour porpoises. Probably the same group that had been feeding around the birds earlier.

A mother and calf pair