Getting the hump while whale watching off Courtmacsherry

Courtmacsherry is now the mecca for visiting cetacean viewers from everywhere on earth.

A breaching humpback whale taken on Sunday, June 6 off the coast of Courtmacsherry, Co Cork. Picture: Christopher O'Sullivan

Great whale watching off Courtmacsherry last week, humpbacks breaching, fin whales feeding, minkies cruising! Unfortunately, I missed it all...

I’d been at sea on the same Atlantic Whale and Wildlife Tour boat earlier and spent over three hours scanning the seascape and not seen a thing. The dolphins cavorting around and ahead of the boat, their full, sleek bodies clearing the water, drew squeals of excitement from visitors – inland souls at sea – but I was looking for the iconic sight of a humpback whale with its cupid-lips of a tail high above the surface, or even its whole body rocketing straight up, skyward, en plein air, my familiar village or headlands set in the view behind it. But this was not to be.