The Other Side

One day as I walked the cliff tops, I saw a lurking man.  This was a little unsettling given my evening reading:

However, the lurker was an archeologist using a drone to monitor a copper mine from the seaward side.  Thrilling stuff.  I have discovered since that he is Dr Julian Whitewright and here's some info about the mine, including results from the day I saw him and learned of the existence of https://rcahmw.gov.uk/.  Anyway, the thrilling bit is that I realised I had never seen the coast from the sea and I remembered my childhood love of boats and wild seas.

after mackerel fishing in Cornwall

So I went to Falcon Boats (which stocks lots of Jackie Morris' work) and booked a trip to Skomer by rib.  I've never particularly wanted to go to Skomer Island but I was impatient for the sea.

David dropped me off at St Justinians Life Boat Station and off I set.

A rib is a small rigid inflatable boat.  It sits low in the water.  It's exhilarating

until an engine conks out and we bob around silently.  Ffion, our captain, assures us we're safe - we've got another engine but she decides we have to turn home.  It's the boat's first trip after a regular maintenance check, and she's not happy!  We can have a refund or book another trip.  I have no easy way of getting back to St Davids so set off for the marathon clifftop walk (see my earlier The Reason post).

With a bit of thinking I decide to skip Skomer and book myself on a circumnavigation of Ramsey Island.  Ramsey is a bit like Maria Island to me - a protecting presence, otherworldly though having been farmed by mere mortals, perhaps on behalf of the gods

here comes our boat

making safe for boarding

nearing Ramsey

so close

there are caves

it's a RSPB bird reserve

lessons to be learned from lichen

Then plop!

wassat?

little darlings

following us

while the clan looks on

until it's time to say goodbye.

I've been right around the island!

back through The Bitches

Carn Lledi from the sea!

nearly back - the new Lifeboat Station

but we're returning to the St Justinian's of family holidays

and there goes my boat

I can't communicate in words the effect of that trip.  Euphoria?  Incredible lightness of being?  Yes to both.  The tour  guide, local born and bred, was perfect - knowledgeable and still in awe of his world.  The boat chugged and lunged through the water as I remember from that childhood fishing trip, always requiring the anticipatory stance for the next roll or plunge.  The passage through The Bitches was as life affirming as I'd been led to believe from stories of shipwreck and rescue.  And I've seen the far side of the island and the cliffs that I love from the sea.

This lightness, this joy, this feeling  of completeness lasted for days.  And its memory will buoy me for ever.