Waves

The southeaster continued through the night and into this morning, with Dominic Cooper reporting that it sits between force 6 and force 8, with gusts to force 9 - and he's on the more sheltered north coast. The difference today is that it has brought bright sunshine, so I walked along the Ormsaigbeg shore to enjoy the warmth and the breakers.

In the bay below the house two gulls were playing in the surf. Just like children, they seemed to be daring each other to drift closer and closer inshore into the breakers until....

 ....one of them was almost toppled over. One could almost hear the other one, swooping overhead, laughing at its friend.

In places the usual way along the shore was impassable as waves rushed up along the bedding planes where the Jurassic limestone strata dip towards the sea. At the back of this area....

....tucked into an eroded cliff, this fern-like plant seemed to be thriving despite the winter temperatures and the regular dousing with salt spray.

As the waves continued to smash against the coastline the Campbeltown prawn trawler Freedom II passed along the coast fishing, having probably come into the Sound to seek shelter. In the distance is Glengorm Castle.

The waves were at their most spectacular in the bay below the twin's house, where they were funnelled in between the headland on the west side and the rocky coastline to the east. One of the joys of digital photography is that one can go on firing off picture after picture in the hope of....

....capturing that magic moment when a great blue-green breaker topples over to destroy itself in a welter of foam. This in the bay in which the family goes swimming in the summer months.

Many thanks to Dominic for the statistics.