Category: Atlantic Ocean

Inisheer Welcomes the 2014 Gaeltacht Irish Football champions

Inisheer Welcomes Their Champions

MichaelStephenWills

After we passed the Killeany bouy on our ferry trip, on the Queen of Aran, (click the link to see this posting) from the harbor of Inis Mor to Doolin, the ship made four, yes four, dockings.

GaeltachtIrishFootbalChampionship-1

A few days prior the Gaeltacht held the annual Irish football championship the weekend of May 21 through June 1 in Moycullen, County Galway. It was the Three Aran Islands (Oileaín Árann) team who won the 2014 championship. Sunday, June 1, the weekend of their victory, the cup was presented to Inis Mór, the largest Aran island and the one furthest into Galway Bay.

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands
GaeltachtIrishFootbalChampionship-2

The team on Monday, June 2, the day of our trip, was on Inis Meáin, in celebration mode.  Some of them were waiting for the ferry when we pulled into the Inis Meáin, the second largest Aran island between the other two, dock.  

GaeltachtIrishFootbalChampionship-3

The first of the previous three photographs is of the waiting team members who boarded and we left for Inisheer Island, the smallest of the three and the closest to Galway City.  The Queen of Aran was well out of the harbor when I imagine the radio in the pilot house said, “Come back, there are more team members on the dock.”  So we turned around, docked and several more came on board.

In way once again, well away from the harbor, the ferry turned around for a second time for a third landing at the  Inis Meáin dock.  With the full compliment of champions on board the ferry turned out of the harbor a third and final time for the last leg of with Silver Cup’s tour of the islands.

The population of Inisheer is about 250 souls.  It seemed all were waiting to greet the team.

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands
Welcoming Family Group at End Of Dock

A large bon fire blazed as the Queen of Aran approached.

Islanders Welcome Champions

People lined the dock from beginning to end.

Islanders Welcome Champions

Calling out, waving their arms.

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands
Islanders Welcome Champions

Standing and smiling.  Here is a flock of fans, from Galway apparently, very pleased at the sight.

Boat Welcomes Champions

The team was on the upper ferry deck.  I turned around and was lucky enough to capture the team captain (Not sure, but who else would it be?) holding the silver cup for all to admire.  Theirs for a year.

Showing the Cup

The crowd welcomed their own back home.

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands
Islanders Welcome Champions

Surrounded the team and walked them grandly to town.

Islanders Welcome Champions

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Creeping up on 900 Readers….

….and a photographic gallery.

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

As of June 9, 881 is the count of subscribers to this blog, an interesting number. The individual numerals sum to a prime number, 17. I appreciate each and every “1” added together, you readers. Thank You.

Today, June 20, 5:44 pm Eastern Daylight Time, is the Summer Solstice for our Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year.

Here is a selection of images from past posts.

Click any photograph for a slide show. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • The trail at Petrohue Falls is packed with tourists on a sunny summer afternoon.
  • Pam and Mike Wills stayed with Marantha House B&B, during our Spring 2014 Ireland Tour. It was our base in County Cork. Our day of arrival, that evening, I visited Charlemagne and fed him an apple, saved from dinner. We learned from our hosts, Olwen and Douglas Venn, he is a retired show horse they rescued. The following morning I visited Charlemagne again with an apple and my camera. As I walked up, starting from the far end of his field, Charlemagne rewarded me with a series of astounding poses, trotting toward me in fine form. The morning mists, hawthorn in bloom, distant hills came together for this memory.
  • Newlyweds on Cocoa Beach waiting for the photographer in a perfect early evening light. A cruise ship departing from Port Canaveral in the distance.
  • Trillium bloom April through May in central New York State. I found these blooming on the rim of Fillmore Glen near Owasco Lake and the town of Moravia.
  • Don Roberto, Maritime pilot, approaches the Regatta
    Don Roberto is on the bow
  • Mexican Poppies bloomed in profusion throughout the Superstitions after the plentiful winter rains of 2008.
  • Pamela and Michael Wills with Iceberg Glacier, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, Fjord Tempanos, Chile aboard the Oceania Regatta
  • A swan and cygnet feeding from the pristine waters of the River Cong, County Mayo, Ireland. Outside the door of Ashford Castle.
  • Ocotillo Sunset
    Ocotillo Sunset
  • The crest of the Portugest Man of War is very visible in the water, the sac can be inflated/deflated to catch the wind or even sink the organism to escape surface feeders.
  • Another solution to the crooked horizon is to level, crop, and build out the lost portions, as I did here. Very time consuming….better to keep the horizon level in the camera, difficult for me to remember.
  • Taken from the entrance.
  • Hydrangea Ensenada ClubAleman Chile February 15, 2016
    Hydrangea Ensenada ClubAleman Chile February 15, 2016

Click Me for my Shutterstock Gallery

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Kite Encounter

catching the wind

MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Awhile after encountering the hydrofoil the same north wind powered a large, eight foot wingspan kite high overhead. Cheri Down Park, my meeting point for lunch with Pam, was in sight as I took a detour to talk with the kite flier.

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Seated in a comfortable beach chair, he turned a one foot diameter reel pulling the kite in. Kite flying was a relaxation for this permanent resident. As the kite descended overhead I caught this short video. In retrospect the beauty is ominous, a metaphor for the approaching novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

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Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photograph

Handheld Sailboard

catching the wind

MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

A week after Rough Surf pounded Cocoa Beach a north wind was up, I set out on a long beach walk. Our plan was to meet at Cheri Down Park, Pam driving up with lunch.

After I emerged from under the Cocoa Beach pier, I spotted this sailboarder. At first it was the handheld sail that caught my attention, enough to capture this video. Watching the recording, I see his board is equipped with a hydrofoil. He is about a foot above the water.

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This rider has nothing on the Man O’War, of the post header image. Click this link to visit “Man O’War Beach Walk” on my blog.

Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photograph

Bright Surf, High Tide

Invasion

MichaelStephenWills15 Comments

Morning walks through January 2020 were solitary events, more so on stormy morning such as this, January 23rd. Even the dog walkers stayed home. The surf surged to the dunes. Click me for my posting, “Rough Surf.”

Today’s photographs are a sequence of the surf’s high point. Click me for yesterday’s post including a video.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

The sun broke through between clouds to rake with light the beach scurf and wind scud. In the distance, a steady west gale blows surf onto itself as a white curtain.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

Click photograph for a larger view. You will open a gallery to flip back and for between images.

Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Dawn Rough Surf High Tide

beyond belief

MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

At dawn I walked on the beach from North 1st street to South 8th Street Cocoa Beach. Tide was at peak of high, the surf still high from gale winds. Click me for yesterday’s posting, “Rough Surf.”

In the first video, set the effect of a strong west wind pushing surf spray back onto itself, the ocean brightly lit across dunes. I was standing on a boardwalk access from South 8th Street.

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South 8th Street is my turnaround, walking back the squall clouds broke, releasing sunlight for this video.

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Squalls returned, forcing me to hide the DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) under my waterproof shell. Then, the squall broken once again, releasing sunlight for this double rainbow.

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Click this link to visit “Man O War Beach Walk” on my blog.

Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Rough Surf

beyond belief

MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

Waves built from onshore wind, fast, steady overnight, through the day from early morning until sunset. Pam and I adapted with a revisit to the Sands Space History Museum, Cape Canaveral just outside the Air Force Station. Click this link for a previous posting, “Cape Canaveral Lighthouse,” first of a series. This post header is a vintage gumball machine from the lobby.

By sunset the waves were roaring. Viewing from the safe distance of our condo porch we spied two surfers incredibly among the waves, taking rides. Waiting and attempting a ride. You can see for yourselves the two tiny dots of humanity, appearing and hidden among the waves. I spot them first and Pam does not believe me, I do not blame her. It is beyond my comprehension people are out there. I cannot recommend the quality of the video from my IPhone, our comments are humorous.

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It is difficult, Pam is astounded when they come into view.

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He rises briefly only to wipe out in this brief video.

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One surfer emerges as his partner persists.

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Click this link to visit “Cocoa Beach Kite Skating” on my blog.

Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Pelicans Skimming Waves

Wave Play

MichaelStephenWills9 Comments

Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) fly as linear flocks of a few individuals, at altitude over the shore, and low over the surf line as seen here. Taken January 27, 2020 with the IPhone 8, there is a now nostalgic insertion of the modern world as a cruise ship comes into view. The ship departs Cape Canaveral Cruise port for parts unknown to me.

Pelicans, when skimming the waves solo, fly even closer, and do wipe-out when a wingtip hits the water. This bird successfully negotiates a path through the surf.

Click this link to visit “Queen Victoria Arrival” on my blog.

Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Black Skimmers Feeding, repost

MichaelStephenWills

Viewing the “Africa” series from BBC we came upon a sequence of Black Skimmers feeding on a Congo river bringing to mind this post from 2018.

Click this link to visit “Black Skimmers Feeding” on my blog.

Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Creeping up on 800 Readers….

….or 800 creeping up on me.

MichaelStephenWills30 Comments

797 is the count of subscribers to this blog, an interesting number. The individual numerals sum to a prime number, 23. The first and last can be swapped to yield the same number. I appreciate each and every “1” added together, you readers. Thank You.

Here is a selection of images from post posts.

Click any photograph for a slide show. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • The trail at Petrohue Falls is packed with tourists on a sunny summer afternoon.
  • Pam and Mike Wills stayed with Marantha House B&B, during our Spring 2014 Ireland Tour. It was our base in County Cork. Our day of arrival, that evening, I visited Charlemagne and fed him an apple, saved from dinner. We learned from our hosts, Olwen and Douglas Venn, he is a retired show horse they rescued. The following morning I visited Charlemagne again with an apple and my camera. As I walked up, starting from the far end of his field, Charlemagne rewarded me with a series of astounding poses, trotting toward me in fine form. The morning mists, hawthorn in bloom, distant hills came together for this memory.
  • Newlyweds on Cocoa Beach waiting for the photographer in a perfect early evening light. A cruise ship departing from Port Canaveral in the distance.
  • Trillium bloom April through May in central New York State. I found these blooming on the rim of Fillmore Glen near Owasco Lake and the town of Moravia.
  • Don Roberto, Maritime pilot, approaches the Regatta
    Don Roberto is on the bow
  • Mexican Poppies bloomed in profusion throughout the Superstitions after the plentiful winter rains of 2008.
  • Pamela and Michael Wills with Iceberg Glacier, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, Fjord Tempanos, Chile aboard the Oceania Regatta
  • A swan and cygnet feeding from the pristine waters of the River Cong, County Mayo, Ireland. Outside the door of Ashford Castle.
  • Ocotillo Sunset
    Ocotillo Sunset
  • My son, Sean, and I traveled to New York City for the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade after September 11, 2001. Every one there shared in the pride and resolve of the New York City Fire Department delegation. They had a huge presence. All of 5th Avenue from side to side, as far as we could see, was full of firemen. Each held a full size American flag, so there was a block of American flags up the street. I composed this image to capture the feeling of this moment.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills