Finally Scott hit the water with the Polo almost upon us. I knew I was going to struggle to score a shot with the whole ship and my 500mm lens, but as she came close to the Cowes shoreline broadside, I was shocked to discover I couldn’t even squeeze the whole boat in with a 70mm lens and my full frame sensor. I needed the ship to turn and be at an angle before I could catch Scott and the whole boat all in one. All this panic was kind of a shame because I had no time to stop, take a breath and just admire the sheer magnitude and scale of this massive manmade 175,000-tonne hunk of steel.
Finally lady luck seemed to shine our way as the Polo turned right on cue with one of Scott’s passes. ‘Fire in the hole’ I whispered before blasting off a few frames, I was pretty sure I nailed a decent picture at last. Finally the sweat started to evaporate as the worst of the pressure was over! For the next 10 minutes Scott lashed his way back and forth across this gigantic freak of a vessel and then it was all over once again as the Polo churned around the corner up into Southampton water. It was a real rollercoaster ride. One minute everything is so intense with that precious window when everything is in line and then a moment later it is all gone with no way of clawing back that time frame. But the Polo was in the bag!