A proposed photography trip on the Yorkshire Divers forum page caught my eye a few months ago and I quickly asked around if anyone fancied it. There were 3 takers, myself, Mark and Dave so the names duly went onto YD.
The proposed trip was to the Farne Islands to do some seal photography and was being organised by Ben Burbery (aka Seal Diver). Ben has done a lot of work videoing seals and it would be a great opportunity for us. His recent works have been shown on the TV programmes Countryfile and Autumnwatch.
A brief was sent by email prior to the trip and explained we would be on Glad Tidings 3 or 7 with William Shiel who we always dive with at the Farnes. It was at this point we held back on explaining to Dave that these were possibly the 2 boats as Glad Tidings 3 (aka Blue Pig) is not his favourite boat. More on that later...........

Three men in a van

On a cold and misty Sunday morning we arrived at Marks house to load up Dave’s van, what were we thinking of being up at 0430???? We set off up the A19 and had a decent run other than the mist and fog all the way up; this did not bode well for taking pictures!!
We arrived, checked in with Ben and then did the usual recce for coffee and toilets. Both closed!! Great start!!
We headed back to the van to start kitting up, “which boat are we on” Dave asks as we spy Glad tidings 7 roped up off the harbour, “the smaller one next to that nice large diver friendly boat” replies Ben....... oh no, we are on the Blue Pig............. Dave’s language was unreportable!!

Three men on a Pig

After loading our gear and confirming everyone from the YD community was there we headed off to the dive site. On arrival Ben gave us a briefing about seals, how to attract them, and how to ensure they don’t bite you when you have coaxed them over.
We arrived at the dive site and Andrew gave us a briefing about where to dive and which area to stay in as there had been a couple of divers caught in Pipers Gut a few weeks ago and they were found over a mile away......................... more on that later!!
Due to the depth being between surface and 8 metres, 2 hours was allocated for the first dive if you wanted to. We dropped in and straight away there were seals everywhere, nipping fins, fingers and cameras. They seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were. Should be easy photography this..... no one told the seals this, just as we lined up shots, they would disappear, the camera would go down again and back they were. I am sure this was there Sunday morning game of wind the divers up.
We did however get some shots, not through a great deal of skill but there were so many of them around it was hard not to.

Time to surface, the three of us came up to shouts of “head round this side of the boat”, “get on the back of the other boat”....... the curse of the Blue Pig had struck again, one of the divers was on the lift/ladder/Mickey mouse contraption and it had broken, luckily enough he was ok but we now had no mechanical means to get back on the boat. Lucky they had a ladder (of sorts) then.....for the second time, Dave’s language is unreportable!!

After a surface interval we headed back for the second dive (again up to two hours) with the warning not to get caught in Pipers Gut as the currents were much stronger. We found ourselves a gully and started on the photography lark again. Every now and then we checked position on the surface in case we had drifted towards the Gut, it was amazing how much we had moved towards it even though we thought we were in the same position, no problems we just finned to the area of slack water again. After about an hour and a half we called the dive and got back on board and dekitted.

As we started to pick up the others, we noticed one diver heading towards the channel which was now running very fast indeed, he looked pretty weak and did not seem to be making headway, for whatever reason we collected another diver first which meant the first fella was out of it by then and had managed to drag himself on the rocks rather than be caught in the current but he was so shattered, he was going nowhere and the boat certainly could not get to him.
A rope was found and I suddenly found myself in fins and snorkel to go and get him (how did that happen??). A quick check to make sure the rope is ok (long enough etc) and I am in, the current was well fast by this time but only towing a rope should be a doddle.......after a short while I was finning and thinking I am not moving anywhere here, grow some, and fin harder I thought.......still no forward movement, a look behind at the boat and there is all sorts going on (more in a bit) and this time my language is the bit that is unreportable!!

Whatever the problem on the boat with the rope was sorted and I got to the diver, he grabbed the rope and the lads towed us back in. Back on board I found out that the rope had got tangled, rather than muck about, the tangle was thrown in and this caught on the ladder..... no wonder there was no forward movement I was trying to tow the boat!!! All ended well, but a few lessons learnt.

Back in to Seahouses, de-kitted and back into Dave’s van for our trip home.
All in all an eventful but well worthwhile trip to see and photograph seals. Many thanks to Ben for sorting this trip out and we will be keeping an eye out for any more of his trips, also to Dave for not turning round and heading home when he saw the "Pig"

Photos to follow..........................................