After what seemed like a couple of decades of being on the bare rock sticking out of the North Sea that is Staple Island, we were eventually rescued by the boat that had abandoned us there, the next stop being the much more hospitable (apart from the dive-bombing Arctic Terns) Inner Farne. Thanks to the tide and/or other boat trips being dropped off on Inner Farne, we had an hour to wait, and so the skipper of the boat took us on a circuit of a couple of the islands to get up close to the local seal population. The seals are an amenable bunch, happily swimming and playing with divers, much as porpoises do, and I swear that they gave us a wave as we passed by.That baby certainly seems content.
