Having a whale of a time in Courtmac

MINKE whales galore off the Seven Heads, the Old Head of Kinsale and everywhere along the south coast.

“Galore” is, of course, a fine indeterminate colloquial term taken straight from the Irish, but Courtmacsherry Angling boat skippers tell me that they regularly count up to 10 minkes in view at one time. Sometimes, when whales “spout”, they can be seen from land; however, the spouts of minke whales are low and those seen probably belong to the “big” whales, the fins and humpbacks.

Last week, a minke whale, deceased, was mistaken for an upturned boat. Vigilant persons on the shore called the Courtmacsherry Lifeboat. It happened around noon and lifeboat volunteers were alerted on their pagers. Within seconds, the doughty crewmen, putting aside their lunch, sped to the pier. Minutes later, the Fredrick Storey Cockburn, as the lifeboat is called, was on the move, her powerful engines lifting her prow out of the water as she surged down the bay.