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Honoured
guests to Manx waters
by
Mike Glover
Reproduced
from in focus 38 (October
1990)
The
tall figure, familiar to most members, was staggering under
the weight of camera boxes as he came out of the airport at
a run.
Are
the Basking Sharks still here? What's the weather forecast?
How are you Mike?
Yes.
Not too bad. I'm fine .... I replied, thinking that Brian
Pitkin must have adopted the advice of a well known purveyor
of underwater cameras that "you can never be over-equipped".
After
a meal I asked tentatively if he would like to see some of
my Basking Shark shots, which I had taken the precaution of
immunising behind glass against Cafe Creme cigar ash. I stood
nervously by as he pawed, sorry pored, over the light box.
After the predictable comments of "not bad" and
"pity that's not quite sharp" it struck me that
he was spending a long time on one particular slide. "That's
a winner", I thought I heard him say. It would be less
than charitable at this point to say that I think I sensed
a determined expression on his face and a squaring of the
shoulders!!
The
next morning we were on the water early. Guess what? Not a
fin to be seen anywhere!! If the rumour that Peter Rowlands,
with Granada TV in tow, was on the Island was true, as well
as the Chairman of BSoUP, surely the sharks should have been
lining up to have their photographs taken?
It
was with considerable relief then, that I spotted fins moving
through the water. An over-weighted (must shoot upwards) Pitkin
was in the water before you could say Bingo. Some hours later
he generously offered to drive the boat so that I could have
a go!! Moments later I thought I heard a anguished wail from
the boat as a 30 foot giant cruised gently past me, mouth
agape.
The
next day we even had sunshine, and it gave me great pleasure
to see Brian raise a clenched fist of success several times.
I think we were both fairly happy that evening as we looked
at our slides. The words "wait 'til Linda hears about
this" were said with some relish I thought.
For
the record, Peter Rowlands was on the Isle of Man that weekend,
but not the one of our variety: yes, there's another one around.
If
you see Pitkin in his drysuit, don't bother to ask him what
the black marking is on his thigh, because he will not be
able to resist telling you anyway. He's so proud of it that
I would not be surprised to see him wearing it at the next
meeting! |
