At Mullion Cove, with the wind from the south west, there was an opportunity to photograph swell – or, at least, to attempt to photograph swell. Trying to record waves at sea is nearly always disappointing – the vessel moves in tune with the waves. I have seen some amazing images from the Southern Ocean but they really need to be taken from outside the boat to truly reflect the situation.

Here I tried to show the swell against fixed objects. Given the storms that pass through here, this is a slight swell.

Firstly the entrance to the small harbour with the storm battered piers, the left hand one recently repaired.

The swell runs round the outside pier . . .

. . . into the harbour and on into this magnificent culvert.

Of course what you think as gentle swell isn’t gentle if you get too close to it.

Even though we were standing on a dry part of the pier, the warning in this video clip is spot on.

We didn’t linger.

(Images by Bill Whateley)