Farne Islands, Rain later, Good.

A nice spring tide but no swell or wind was forecast  so there was little or no action expected on this trip. The day had dawned bright and sunny but rain was forecast for later and the Mare's tails were giving the show away from an early stage.

We set off early enough to catch the peak Ebb flow in the hope there might be a little bit of movement outside, we soon had a picture of what we were going to find..

We approached Inner Farne and crept up the outside of the Wide opens heading for the Bush. Even here today the conditions were benign.

A steady ferry glide over Staple Sound took us onto the SE corner of Staple Island and then on to the Pinnacles.

From here we made steady progress out past Longstone and onwards to Knifestone. We managed to slip out to Knifestone just as the Ebb tide was in it's dying minutes . On this 5 meter tide there was less than 5 minutes of slack water. As we drifted past Knifestone it had  changed direction and we soon started heading back in the opposite direction.

 The Grey Seals out there were very curious and coming up to the boats within nibbling distance of the interesting dangley bits.



Plenty tide running away past Inner Farne by the time we left in the afternoon.

Peak flow in the Inner Sound as we made for home.

Hang on a minute, that's not a seal is it ??




.

After our loop out round Knifestone we made towards Longstone for lunch. This would give the Flood tide some time to pick up. Grant went for a swim as we chatted to one of the skippers of the tour boats. His party had gone ashore and he politely reminded us that we should keep a good distance from the seals if they were hauled out. A a lot of the birds had left now the seals were the only attraction for them to show the tourists. We agreed and laughed with them as they told us of days gone by when they made their living form the fishing. In those times they told us they couldn't give a shit about the seals and used to shoot them with a 12 bore as they nipped the Salmon in their nets

On the way back over Staple Sound we encountered some nice tidal overfalls. A few great surfing runs made up for an otherwise lazy Sunday paddle. We caught our breath, re-grouped and made our way back down the NW side of the Islands, stopping briefly on Hutchinson's slab for a quick break. By now the forecast had carried out it's threat and the rain had begun. With haste, we nipped out through Wideopen Gut and slipped back up through the Eddie under the North West Cliff of Inner Farne to catch the tidal  conveyor that runs form the NW point  back to our launch  at the Boardwalk on St Aidans dunes. A perfect end to a day that started with sun block and ended up with a brolly. All great fun though and we were all left with a feeling that we had been somewhere special and charged our batteries for another week.