High seas diary: Part five
Post categories: High seas diary
| 11:21 UK time, Wednesday, 14 October 2009
It's been action stations since first light. Woke at 6am to a rolling boat in pitch black seas. Within five minutes of being upright, the call went up to shoot the nets. Davie the skipper had been keeping a keen eye on the sonar through the night, locating shoal of mackerel, thankfully at a respectable hour. The light came quickly, and by the time I had thrown on my safety gear and was out on deck it was light enough to film.
I didn't feel particularly optimistic this morning. The boat was (and still is) being rolled around by a sizable swell. The visibility was poor and the air full of sea vapour and rain, making filming (or at least keeping the lens free of water) pretty difficult.
There was another large trawler fishing close by, and when viewing that boat I realised how much we are being bullied by the sea.
Incredibly, as we started to haul the nets out of the gloom maybe 10-15 killer whales arrived. They kept their distance the entire time, with a frenzy of tail slapping 200-300 metres away. It's a hard job to film activity at such a distance, so I was left slightly frustrated.
However, still reeling from our encounter on Monday and just had word that our footage has reached Bristol. Enjoy it when you see it on Friday night on the show and watch this space for some tasters.
Obviously very pleased to see the killer whales, but hope that they'll come in closer the next time. Shout has just gone up again to shoot the nets, so must dash. More later...
In the meantime, read parts one, two, three and four of my high seas diary.
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