Hello everyone
Ok I have to admit that although I love the sea and for most of my life lived close to it, I have an irrational fear of open water, so it's not on my list of regular activities to go out on open water, but I have always loved the look of harbours with the little boats all lined up just waiting for their next mission out.
I chose some photos that bring back some cool memories. This first one is my submission to the sea & boat photography contest. I took it a few days after my husband and I found out that I was pregnant and we hadn't told anyone yet - I got some strange looks from family when over lunch I chose to have a soft drink with no alcohol content while everyone else had a beer for my grand-mother in law's birthday.
While I've always loved looking at boat photos, mine have always come out rather crap, but this one I really like. The vanishing point with the pier going off into the distance and all the boats lined up peacefully sleeping while their captains are off doing other things.
I've been on a few boats in my life on short trips out, but I really tested my fear of the ocean when I went out on a pelagic birding trip a long while back. It's a really weird and strangely terrifying feeling when you completely lose sight of land for the first time in your life and all around you is freezingly cold water. Luckily I don't get seasick as that would have probably pushed me over the edge. It took me a while to find my sea legs and then I chose to focus on the birds instead of the uneasiness that was sitting in my chest.
On this trip I saw some amazing birds, all sorts of Albatross, Skuas and other little pelagic birds that you just don't see from terra-firma - and a lot of fishing boats. This one was operating like a well-oiled machine. Everyone knew their purpose, place and each fisherman helped to get the job done. Unfortunately the only fish I saw going into the boats were sharks.
Of course being close to a fishing vessel for birding isn't a bad thing, they love fishing boats and are always looking for the odd scrap going over the side and then they tend to have some ferocious fights over them.
Looking back at these times, life seemed a lot simpler. We could go out to the harbour to take a photo without any restrictions. We could book a ticket to go see plump seals, basking in the sun being lazy. We could have a drink at the pier and some calamari with our family and insist on tartar sauce over mayonnaise.
We had it really good back then, even with a fear of the ocean, I could choose to face the fear and just go do it. Gosh how I miss that feeling.
If given the opportunity in the near future, I'm going to take more boat photographs, even if it's just a reminder that even though we all seem docked at the pier indefinitely now, perhaps soon the seas will calm and we'll be able to venture out into open water again. Wouldn't that be grand!