Yesterday afternoon I took a trip offshore to photograph the open sea for some paintings I'm working on for my upcoming exhibition. Capt. Buddy Harris took me out in his custom built 50' Harris (yes he built her). Buddy is a renowned builder of true "Carolina Style" sportfishing boats (click here and read Capt. Tennant's history of the Carolina style boat to find out more). I wanted to go out on a day with some moderate seaswell so I figured with energy from Tropical Storm Phillipe out there and 15 knot westerlies there should be some good wave action. Got what I wanted as you can see from the roll of the boat in the photo above as we were heading out into open water after leaving the dock. Below are a couple of pictures from the trip.
First we went by our old friend Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge watery grave. Divers were working the site probably checking out the status of everything down there after Hurricane Irene. You'll notice the ship went down only a mile offshore. You can clearly see the beach and houses in the distance.
This is a shot from the flybridge. I thought I'd go up top and chat with the Captain for a few minutes. I forgot how compounded the sea action is the higher up you go and I'm not one to get seasick but it was pitching and rolling a little too much and I didn't want to take any chances this early in the trip....so I just eased myself back down the ladder.
This is the sea buoy which is about 8 miles offshore. It is the last buoy as you head out to sea and the first buoy marking the shipping channel as you come from sea. The most amazing and eery thing about it is, it has an air cavity and air channel built into it with a horn at the upper end. The air pressure from the sea swell creates a rush of air that blows through the horn. Below is a short video I shot...
The effect reminded me of Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida's Wind Comb I saw when I was in San Sebastian Spain a few years ago.
Here's a shot a few miles beyond the sea buoy, but what caught my eye when I returned to the studio to review my photos was the shape of the cirrus cloud above. It first struck me like the "Batman" sign in the sky from the old "Batman" series but then it looked more like a white dove. Was it a sign......?
It was after all a very good afternoon!