BATTLESHIPS
With no red, white and blue smoke trails of the Arrows to work with as a photographic backdrop, I was searching for a new target. Fortunately the Royal Navy duly obliged by parking HMS Monmouth a mile or so offshore instead. This type 23 frigate known as the ‘Black Duke’ was originally built to deal with the Soviet submarine threat, but in the 20 years since the fall of communism they have proven their versatility by dealing with missions all over the world. The ship has served its country by assisting in anti-piracy missions off of Somalia, served time in the Gulf and circumnavigated the globe on duty in 2007. Recently fitted with type 997 medium range radar and the Seawolf missile system, this ship is certainly not one to be messed with. Here to help the Bournemouth air show be a flying success, the Royal Navy were putting on combat demonstrations for the 700,000 members of the public on hand to watch. But even the high winds and rough seas seemed too much for the Royal Navy when after an hour or so the Monmouth pulled up anchor and headed to calmer waters further offshore.
WATER SESSION
With all of my potential photographic backdrop options now out the window, my only option was to swim out and try and score some shots looking back towards the affluent beachfront houses and stunning cliffs of the Bournemouth coastline. The wind had slightly gone off the boil, but our pilots were still well powered on 3.6m – 4m sails and the Motley Crew air show continued in spectacular style. The action ensued for another few hours until the clouds set in and the wind swung slightly offshore to WSW, which ended any chances for big air on the inside. That was our cue to head to Kimmeridge for the late session and trust our luck, we heard the Red Arrows had turned up for an early evening session just after we had left; a lucky escape for us!