In September 2014 Lesley Rudd and I travelled to Penzance in Cornwall to meet up with Charles Hood and snorkel with Blue sharks. Charles had started his Blue shark snorkelling trips a couple of years earlier, venturing about 20 miles offshore and using chum to attract the sharks.  It is not a trip for the weak of stomach as the chum can be smelly and more pertinently there can be a lot of bobbing around on Logan, Charles’ RIB. Neither Lesley nor I had ever seen, let alone snorkelled with Blue sharks so the prospect was very exciting.  

Day One. The sea was quite rough, indeed any rougher and Charles and his son Will would not have taken us out.  It was not long before I began to feel unwell. I stole a glance at Lesley. Annoyingly she was clearly fine. Damn. To my surprise I noticed that Charles’s preparations for baiting the Blue sharks included putting a mat on the side of Logan to reduce the risk of a shark bite deflating the RIB. Not an appealing prospect 20 miles offshore. In between bouts of sickness, I took some snatched shots of a Mola Mola basking on the surface but with the sharks proving very skittish, did not get in the water. 

Day Two. The sea had calmed down considerably but in any case, belatedly, I was this time fully dosed with sea sickness tablets. The weather was remarkably good for late September. Once, well off shore, Charles lowered a fish head to a depth of 10 metres, attaching this to a float on the surface. Some frozen chum in a bag was then put over the side of the boat.  I got the impression from Charles that there is often more than one shark drawn to his RIB but Lesley and I would be very happy enough to see just Blue shark. Fingers crossed. Suddenly the float twitched, we were in business. Charles expertly lured the unseen nibbler to the surface, then towards the RIB while telling Lesley and I to gently slip into the water. And there it was - a blue shark right in front of us. And now we could see how these sharks got their name. It’s underside was white but it’s top half was a shimmering metallic blue. Blue sharks can grow to over three metres long but this shark was probably one metre long. I happily snapped some shots and then just as we thought that the day could not get better, a pod of Pilot Whales cruised by us. Or as Lesley called them - Giant Dolphins. 

A fabulous two days – thank you Charles Hood.