10 days in to my 2011 Sardine Run trip and I have yet to lay eyes on a sardine! The weather has been atrocious with one frontal system after another marching in from the deep south and sending huge 5m swells rolling at the coast, along with screaming 40kt easterlies just to make sure it is properly miserable out at sea. So far we have sat on land for 4 of the 10 days watching the white frothy mess that is supposed to be the ocean. Of course the weather appears to moderate from next week according to the forecasts, just as I have to get back home. So far all the baitballs (and there have not been many) we have found have been red-eyes, fast moving baitfish which do not sit around to be photographed. Our team has had exactly 5mins on a baitball in clean water before another 3 boats unloaded their divers and chased away the predators. We have also managed 40 mins on a baitball in dirty water (2-3m viz) which makes decent photos impossible.
Here are a few shots anyway:
First baitball of 2011... Action was fast moving and lasted about 5 mins before other boats arrived and offloaded a herd of divers and snorkellers into the water chasing away all the predators!
The bottlenose dolphins playing in the storm swells were just spectacular.
Very rough day at sea and bitterly cold. Found a baitball of red-eye near Brazen Head in dirty water and swam over a km chasing them. Eventually got a static baitball and targeted the diving gannets as the water was too dirty for wide angle. This gannet caught a fish on the dive...
Lots of gannet action on fast moving red-eye shoals but nothing static enough to jump on. Sheets of wind driven sea spray makes playing with topside camera's risky but managed to snap this mother and calf pair of common dolphins as a consolation prize.
At the moment I'm sitting (on land as it's too rough to be at sea) and contemplating whether it's worth the divorce to extend my trip out by another few days!
Rgds
Jean.
