Tag Archives: sea

Feb 01 2023
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Daily Post, Landscape

Rollers

Tuesday 31st January 2023, 11.50am (day 4,177)

Roller waves, 31/1/23

At this time of year, big swells move down the Atlantic all the way from Canada and crash into the first land they meet, which at this point in the ocean, is the north-east coast of St Helena. The locals call them ‘rollers’. They were certainly rolling today, against the sea wall in Jamestown. In one year in the 1800s they were big enough to take out half the town. Surfers would like them, I imagine — although surfing is not a sport that seems to have yet reached St Helena.

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Jan 28 2023
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Daily Post, Transport

Boats at Jamestown

Friday 27th January 2023, 11.20am (day 4,173)

Jamestown boats, 27/1/23

Spent all day in Jamestown, where it was hot and sunny, certainly the warmest I’ve experienced it here on this trip. Ten years ago today I had just arrived in Brisbane for my four-month-long sojourn in Australia (and other nearby countries), and even if the weather on my arrival there was less-than-optimum for a couple of days, like today, that did remind me how much nicer it is sometimes to not be hanging around in the UK at this time, with all its lack of light and wintry bollocks. Pottering about in the tropical heat of a late January doesn’t have to be done every year but I will certainly take it now and again.

Is the horizon straight on this one? It’ll do.

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Jan 23 2023
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

On the Jamestown sea wall

Monday 23rd January 2023, 3.50pm (day 4,169)

Jamestown crab, 23/1/23

Jamestown is one of only three places on St Helena where it is fairly easy to get down to the sea, and that is where I was standing at the end of my day’s work when I looked down and was faintly revolted when a whole sqaudron of these little black crabs scuttled out from just below me and headed for the water. They looked rather plain and black from above but I got the camera out anyway. On uploading the pictures it was pleasing to see the detail on this one, the spots, the red and the blue. Perhaps there is beauty in all things. (Except jellyfish, which really are disgusting.) This specimen can become the first of its biological order (Brachyura) to make the blog.

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Jan 01 2023
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Daily Post, Transport

The Isle of Man ferry

Friday 30th December 2022, 2.50pm (day 4,145)

Isle of Man ferry, 30/12/22

Off it goes across the Irish Sea, from Heysham, the sea wall of which I was stood on as I took this shot. The Isle of Man has not yet featured on this blog although I am due a visit at some point, to bag its County Top. Maybe next year… there is still time in my life, I feel.

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Oct 23 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Portsmouth Harbour

Saturday 22nd October 2022, 11.15am (day 4,076)

Portsmouth Harbour, 22/10/22

After not finding much of interest in Southampton, I headed for the next city to the east, Portsmouth — a more agreeable spot. At least, to look at from across its Harbour, one of the greatest natural harbours in the world, and the explanation for why this has always been a naval base. The Spinnaker Tower, seen here, is 560 feet tall. I passed this point on my latest County Top walk, so feel free to look at that other blog for more photos and so on.

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Aug 16 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape, Transport

The ferry to Árrain Mhór

Monday 15th August 2022, 3.25pm (day 4,008)

Árrain Mhór ferry, 15/8/22

We spent the day on the island of Árrain Mhór, which in Gaelic just means ‘Big Island’. And it is fairly big, maintaining a permanent population of a few hundred, enough to justify a regular ferry service from the mainland, anyway. And here is the 3.30pm boat back to Ireland, coming in reasonably on schedule.

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Aug 14 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Trawenagh Bay, Donegal

Sunday 14th August 2022, 3.10pm (day 4,007)

Trawenagh Bay, 14/8/22

Time to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland, getting out of the UK for the first time since late November. Time to get out of the city and into the country — right into it. More of this over the next few days, I sure hope.

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May 25 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Fortrose Ness

Wednesday 25th May 2022, 2.35pm (day 3,926)

Fortrose Ness, 25/5/22

Spectacular landscape #2 of 2. The Black Isle — which is a peninsula rather than an island — has never been seen by me before but turns out to be spectacularly beautiful, a smorgasbord of photo opportunities. I did my best to pick one that summed up all this.

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May 08 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Walking on water

Saturday 7th May 2022, 11.05am (day 3,908)

Today I, and around 250 other people, walked from Arnside to Grange-over-Sands — an easy, flat walk of about 5.5 miles. The complication is that between these two places lies the northern reach of Morecambe Bay, the largest expanse of intertidal land in Great Britain. But in that also lay the fun of the day — the chance to (safely) get a couple of miles away from permanently dry land, into a space that is neither one thing nor the other, a limbo state between land and sea — with a healthy dose of sky, too.

I deliberately cranked up the contrast on this shot because I like the way that all the people look like dashes of paint descending from a horizon that is insubstantial but definitely there. As if we are trapped within a sheet of glass, aware of the heavens above us but unable to reach them.

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Apr 25 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The West Pier remnants

Monday 25th April 2022, 10.25am (day 3,896)

West Pier remnants, 24/4/22

Brighton is still in the top ten of this blog’s most-depicted locations, but hasn’t been seen since February 2018, until yesterday anyway. There are reasons why I should regain the habit of coming here. How much longer the old West Pier will last before collapsing entirely into the sea, no one knows for sure, but the ruins will doubtless feature on many people’s photos before they do.

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