by Mervyn Jackson
Saturday morning dawned with a clear blue sky and virtually no wind. The sea was flat calm. Stan's boat, the St Ebba IV, headed out towards the Farne Islands with 12 divers and what looked like enough kit for double that number. Seals were on everyone's mind, and no, not the wrist and neck type. Seals were what we had all come to see.
By circumstance (everyone else had chosen someone else as their buddy) I was buddied with Julian Hoe from Middleton Sub-Aqua club. We had only met only 12 hours earlier, but I soon discovered that Julian is an accomplished underwater photographer as you can see from his pictures below, and also an excellent diver. We were last in the water of the group of 12 divers, neither of us daring to even hope for the dive that was to follow. We dropped to 18 metres and watched the underwater world drift past as we got used to diving together and kept an look out for seals.
After about 35 minutes I had almost given up on seeing any seals on this dive, but it was the first of a planned 6 dives over 3 days, so plenty of time yet. We moved in closer to the rocks and up to 6 metres when a seal appeared out of the gloom, swam past us a few metres away and was gone. OK signals, and a silent cheer that at least we had seen a seal. Up a bit further to 4 metres. But then began the most memorable part one of the most fantastic dives in my 13 years of diving. A seal came and started to nibble at Julian's yellow fins and to inspect his camera lens at very close range. The seal by now was holding on to Julian's fin as you can see from the picture.
Have you ever stroked a cat or dog behind the ears and seen it's eyes gradually closing as they get more relaxed? Our seal did just the same. We were on the surface, and as I stroked behind where I imagined it's ears might be it's big brown eyes looked into mine and slowly closed in contentment. Our seal silently slipped beneath the surface and was gone for a few seconds, but soon came back for more.
Seals also roll over on their backs and wait for their underbelly to be tickled - at least ours did! Later I managed to stroke it with my glove off, and then remembered the very sharp looking teeth which seals use to rip fish to pieces, so decided to put my glove back on. This was a good decision because by now our friendly seal was becoming even more inquisitive and feeling and investigating us in the only way it could - with it's teeth. Dive consoles, camera, torch, hoods and gloves were all examined.
Words cannot do justice to the memory of this dive. What made this encounter even more special was that this was a truly wild animal in it's own environment - it could have left us at any moment, and in fact it did - but it kept coming back to us.
This one dive made all the blood, sweat and tears of learning to dive (and believe me there have been all three in varying quantities, but mainly incredible amounts of sweat) truly worthwhile. We saw seals on most of the dives, but none to match this first dive of the weekend.
No amount of money could have bought this dive. It depended on being in the right place, at the right time, with the right buddy and the right seal.
Next year it could be you playing with the seals.All photographs here are the copyright of Julian Hoe, so thanks Julian for the excellent photos and for the 6 dives we did together.
