Monday 20 May 2013

Seal Watching In Newtown Creek






A lone Harbour Seal, hauled out on the point, surveys the steely, pre-dawn stillness expectantly.




The sun languorously rises from its slumbers and peers, bleary-eyed, over the horizon...




...to suffuse Newtown Creek with a rose-pink glow.




The glow hardens to a white-gold spotlight, as the sun climbs higher. It picks out, raucous, Barnacle Geese, hunkered down in the sedge.




Black Headed gulls cackle and posture; like Mummers strutting a Village Green.




The tide glides in silently...




....covering the teeming banks and shoals.




A black hulled lugger spreads its tan wings, dragonfly-like, and ghosts, on a zephyr, between green fields.




Oyster Catchers take to the water, dagger bills poised.




Yesterday evening, Stargazer rode a fair tide and a, south easterly, jolie brise (F4), to bring us to this haven of birdsong and tranquility:




Past the recumbent, pyjama striped, cliffs of Colwell Bay, we flew;




Past the tall finger of Hurst Point, with the tide boiling under us;




Past, the bulldog squat, Fort Albert, and into the Solent.




We sound into Newton Creek,as the setting sun paints a crimson exclamation mark across our anchorage.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Isle of Wight

Saturday 11 May 2013

Studland In Summer






It's Friday evening. The sun is setting on a working week. It paints Old Harry a honeyed gold. Stargazer swings contentedly at anchor. I sit reflectively, eating my supper and drinking in the view.




A regal bird of passage alights for Saturday breakfast; before silently taking wing again, bound for some distant shore.




The morning sun glints off cobalt sea and silvered sand. Lone dog walkers are joined by gregarious sun bathers. Beach boats race, excitedly, around the stately anchored visitors, like so many playful children.




Sea mist swirls around Harry's shoulders. The Poole shore, The Island, and even the green dome of Ballard Down's summit, disappear from view.




We are left: sparkling summer butterflies; basking in the sunshine, within our silky white cocoon, of sea mist.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Studland Bay