Episode 5 Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape

This is the coast of Connemara in the West of Ireland.

It's my home for six months working for an Irish whale and dolphin conservation group.

As well as photographing animals for identification

I've been dealing with strandings and tagging sharks as part of a worldwide migration survey.

It's the most rewarding job I've ever had.

That is great fun, did I mention it was great fun?!

Fantastic.

This week, when Hookers go bad.

Watch your heads, watch your heads!

A close shave racing traditional boats in Galway bay.

If we send two vehicles up here the most likely place is here.

And a midnight mission to find a basking shark beached somewhere in the dark.

Up ahead of me I've got mysterious shadowy figures.

'Last week, my boss, Simon Berrow,

'and I were called to move a dead dolphin from a beach.'

It presents a bit of a riddle for you, Simon.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an adult, so...you know, why is it stranded.

When Simon and I got to that striped dolphin in the Shannon estuary, it was dead.

It was just this stranded animal that had just died on shore.

It was very poignant for me because it made me realise that with

the right bit of kit, potentially if we'd got to that animal in time it could have been returned to the sea.

And in the whole vast area of Ireland

there's only two whale and dolphin rescue pontoons

and that's the bit of kit you need to return these animals to the water.

The Irish whale and dolphin group are desperate to raise money for a third rescue pontoon

and after all the work I've been doing this summer, I'd love to see it based here in Connemara.

So they've come to me and said would I organise a festival on their behalf,

so I'm going to organise a Roundstone Wildlife and Diving Festival.

I've got a couple of months to do it, which would be fine if it wasn't for all my other duties.

I've been monitoring whales, dolphins and basking sharks,

but as summer comes to an end, the sea is cooling and the animals are moving further off shore.

I could really use a bit of help.

This is Casement Aerodrome in Dublin and today I'm off to look for

whales and dolphins, but with a bit of a difference.

Right, maritime patrol today, we go out high level to north of zone seven send out the low level...

'We're going whale watching with the Irish Air Corps.'

We have a few extra people with us, Simon Berrow from the Whale and Dolphin group

and Monty and his crew, so they'll be filming.

The crew's main job is policing fishing fleets in European Union waters.

But the Irish government is obliged to do an audit of marine wildlife

every seven years and Simon's whale and dolphin group has the contract to do the work.

Our five-hour trip will cover a huge area of sea.

We're just crossing the coast into Galway Bay.

The way this works is, you have one observer up the front which will be me for the first half hour or so,

recording the time, the location, core speed, cos what you need is

a very accurate record of where the aircraft's going.

Meanwhile, the second observer - Simon at the back - is actually there with a camera.

There's a Perspex sort of bubble window, so you've got to hang it out over the sea,

and he's ready to actually take photographs of any animal we go over the top of.

Now, we're at about 5,000 feet at the moment. You're not going to see anything from 5,000 feet.

But they drop down to about 1,000 feet if they see something

or something comes up on the radar and they'll even drop down to 100 feet or so

if it looks particularly interesting and they want to take a photo.

The crew routinely photograph whales and dolphins

which you just wouldn't spot any other way.

So I'm off to the cockpit. Always wanted to go into the cockpit

of an aircraft in flight - bit of a childhood ambition.

'The plane's radar is so sensitive it can pick up everything from

'fishing boats to pods of dolphins and even individual animals.'

But the great thing is that a lot of the contacts particularly on a day like today when it's quite calm

could be whales.

The first thing we'll know is on the radar, then we'll drop down

and actually investigate and see if it's a big cetacean.

Simon's just said he had a whale on his side on the left-hand side, it's kind of...

It's probably why we're going like that, everyone's rushed over to the left-hand side!

On the off chance that I actually see something - I haven't seen anything yet...

I'll push that button there

and that means a mark is placed for the pilot that he can return to.

It's incredibly hard to spot anything...

even something as big as a whale...

but when the light hits in a certain way...

your patience is rewarded.

I've just seen my first whale in Ireland.

Minke whale.

'As the flight continues, we tick off an impressive list of species

'along with their precise locations, all adding to our knowledge of whales and dolphins in Irish water.'

I've never filled two sheets, look at that.

'From a boat Simon would only ever spot a handful of animals in any given day.

'Today we've notched up eleven dolphin species and six types of whales between us.'

Wow, fantastic.

I came good at the end.

It's ten minutes to landing, so I'm going to sit between the lads just as we come in,

cos it's something I've always wanted to do.

Been a great day and it just makes you realise what is out there off the coast of Ireland.

I have got deep vein thrombosis from sitting in that seat with my face

pressed against the thing for four hours but, yeah, great, great stuff.

Oh!

Connor, thank you very much.

-No problem, Monty, glad to have you.

-Really great experience.

I've seen more probably in that four hours than I've seen in the last four months.

Yeah, I do want to be a pilot. Brilliant.

-Brilliant.

-Another tick off the list.

Another tick off the list.

'Back on the ground, I'm getting very excited by the Dive Festival.'

I've got eight weeks to organise this diving festival and this is one of the things I can really do

during my time here, is raise the profile of the work the Irish Whale and Dolphin group are doing.

And my best conduit to that is the Irish diving community.

I think Roundstone and Clifden and the whole Connemara coast here just...some stunning diving here

and it's not just the big animals going past, it's the smaller stuff on the reefs as well.

And this is me saying, I can do this for the IWDG

and create something that no-one else can create on this one weekend.

This is Gurteen and it's a beautiful bay

and it's part of an isthmus, cos the other side you have Dog's Bay.

It's like an hour glass of two beautiful white beaches.

This is where Dive Fest is going to take place.

There'll be photography competitions, there's going to be a big marquee just there.

Where we're going to have a Ceilidh we're going to have diving, trivia quizzes, bands, lectures

from all sorts of learned people and a marine mammal medic course about how to look after a whale

or dolphin if it strands, how to get back into the sea.

So, all in all, the complete day for the Irish Diving fraternity.

The festival will take place on the caravan site owned by Pat Mullen.

We first met because he keeps Connemara ponies in the fields immediately in front of my cottage.

Hello, Pat, how are you? Lovely day.

'He's a top breeder of traditional ponies and today's a hugely important day.

'He's invited me to help show his ponies at the local show, and it's no ordinary event.'

The show we're just heading off to Pat, this is a big affair, is this.

This is the biggest Connemara pony show in the world. This is a big day.

Well, look, I know you're incredibly busy. Don't let me hold you up, and I'll see you at the show.

-Good luck. Bye.

-Good to see you Pat, see you, Brian. Cheers.

This is the Clifden Connemara Pony Show,

an international event that's the biggest of its kind in the world.

Everyone, including the ponies, is in best bib and tucker

for an event that's one of the highlights of the local summer.

Clifden has ground to a complete halt, that's the ring just there,

but I think it's a great event, isn't it, wonderful colour,

and a celebration of this unique animal in its home.

Another neighbour, Caillin Conneely, has entered a pony in the show and I'm keen to see how he's done.

-It's a huge show this, isn't it?

-It's the biggest Connemara ponies in the world.

-Right.

-Everyone's here.

-You've had a great day, haven't you?

-Super day.

Absolutely super, we won three-year-old mare class and we were reserve junior champions.

-I imagine you'll have a beer to celebrate.

-Several or two!

As you're my near neighbour I feel kind of cool by association, the fact I'm even talking to you.

Showtime is approaching for Pat's class.

My job is to walk the foal behind its mum.

Close enough to stave off separation anxiety, but not so close it decides to suckle.

It sounds like a doddle, but watching the earlier classes I'm starting to get butterflies.

Right, my big moment has arrived, which is leading the foal around the ring.

Everyone I've spoken to has given me slightly different advice.

Long rein, short rein, whatever.

All I know is I do not want to die in a freak incident with a foal, that's very uncool.

But I'll meet Pat down here, he'll give me a last few top tips

and then off we go, into the ring.

So, Pat, what would be the best way of doing this then.

You roll up this and don't put your hand, don't get yourself tied up in it.

-No problem, sir.

-Don't let go, Monty!

Right, whatever happens, I won't let go.

-Yes.

-If I'm towed on my face across the car park, I won't let go.

With Pat's son Brian leading the mare things get off to a good start.

But I must be doing something wrong because without a word being said, Pat substitutes me before I can do

any more damage to the mare's chances.

I did two rounds and was immediately sacked.

The trigger was cocked a couple of times, I saw one leg

go like that, but lovely and it's a big deal for Pat, it's really nice of him to give me a chance to lead

the animal round a couple of times, because there's a lot of pride wrapped up in this.

Sadly, it's all for naught. The best they can manage is sixth place

and, despite my heroic contribution, I don't even get a look in, let alone a rosette.

I think the judges are trying to tell me something.

I don't even get a handshake.

It's been a lovely day, I still have my teeth, which I'm delighted about,

having led the foal around, but it's a celebration obviously of the Connemara pony.

It's a bit more than that, I think. Everywhere I go in Connemara,

the people are very proud of who they are and where they come from.

So in a way it's been a celebration of the whole Connemara identity, I think, today.

Been grand, been grand.

'One of my jobs over the summer has been monitoring a pod of dolphins in my bay.'

Ahhh, look at that!

'I'm pretty convinced they live here year round, which would make them

'one of only four resident pods in the whole of Britain and Ireland.

'It's been too rough recently to get out on the boat

'but a couple of months ago, I put out an acoustic pod to record their movements when I can't.

'It's the first to be deployed in Connemara and since it's worth

'4,000 euros, I'm anxious to check it's survived the storms.'

It's so important that we check this pod.

This pod will reveal the riddle of the resident dolphin population.

So it's a pod confirming the movements of a pod, in effect.

The acoustic pod records the clicking noises dolphins use to communicate with each other.

It's a relief to see it still here, but I'll leave it for another month

or so before we haul it up and analyse the data.

It's very good.

It's down doing its thing.

Just suspended beautifully off the bottom

in a perfect upright position.

The constant scientist.

They're listening to this big body of water around me, for passing

dolphins, cetaceans, you know, good stuff, the guys did really well.

All is well with the world, very nice.

Things are moving on apace, for the organisation of the Diving and Wildlife Festival.

But it's a big old job this, there's marquees, there's food,

there's auctions, there's all sorts of stuff going on.

But, by one of those happy little coincidences, my girlfriend's coming out which is brilliant.

What's even more brilliant is she specialises as an event organiser.

What's the chances of that? Really looking forward to

her coming out, but, I'm going to throw my arms round her when I see her, cos it'll be a great moment

and whisper romantically in her ear, "Can you help me organise the Diving and Wildlife Festival, please?"

When Tam turns up, I'm keen to show off where I live.

Before she can get a word in, I've turned into an excited schoolboy

wanting to show her everything at once.

You know I said it was kind of south Devon, it was sort of Salcombe.

I go up there and you run up and over and you come to this lovely little old harbour.

But you can sit out of an evening and just listen to the kind of noises of the village.

And this pony here, he's a funny one because he never moves.

It's really nice to sort of show you where I am, as it were.

-I know, it's great to see it.

-Lovely, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Really lovely.

Come and look round. It won't take an enormous amount of time, it's not the biggest cottage.

Oh, Reuben, hello.

Who's that, Reubs?

Who's that? Who's that?

Hello.

Hello, hello,

hello, hello.

'As Tam's part Irish, I've prepared a traditional Connemara welcome.

'Everywhere you go locally you seem to get offered scones, so I've baked a batch in time honoured fashion.'

That's delicious. That's an absolutely triumph.

The Dive Festival is rapidly approaching and I'm keen for Tam

to make local contacts who can help make it a success.

So her arrival is a great excuse for a party, and the best party food I know is a homemade chilli.

A little bit of paprika, an eye-wateringly intense chilli.

The plan this evening, there's a few local people coming round.

I'm going to show them some photos of my life here so far and just

share a bit of the magic of Connemara and Roundstone.

Lynne, who always looks after Reubs, she's bringing her bodhran along.

I will, of course, insist on playing my guitar all evening for a grateful crowd and I'm making

a chilli here that's so hot - a chilli has to actually make your whole face,

indeed your whole head hurt when you eat it - or it's not proper chilli.

It should be a very, very enjoyable evening, I think.

Oh.

'But it seems I might have let the housework slip a bit

'so while Tam tidies up, I get the slide show organised.

'With a beautiful sunset to welcome them, the guests start arriving.

'There's Finn, an Irish mate from the UK with the beer.

'Ronan, my fishing buddy, and Paddy McDonagh, my currach rowing trainer.

'The party's off to a great start with everyone enjoying the highlights of the summer so far.

'And it's great to have someone to share the organisation with.'

It's going well, I've assumed the crucial host with the most role, such as drinking beer,

telling tall stories to everyone while Tam has seamlessly moved to the cooker and is taking charge.

It's lovely, nice mixture of sort of friends and local people here and all that.

Yeah, nice, brings the cottage to life really.

I think evenings like this are really important because it's local people coming round, basically,

coming to visit me in the cottage and it's just very important personally to know that

people have accepted me and, so it's lovely to have a house-full,

the kids running outside, playing football with the dog. Perfect.

But just as everything is as mellow as it can be,

a late-night phone call from Simon at the Whale and Dolphin group gets everyone buzzing with excitement.

A basking shark's been washed up. I think ten minutes down the coast,

and obviously it's the dead of night, pitch black.

Everyone's just gone with enormous gusto, and is sweeping the beach looking for this monster.

I have some huge lights back in the house if they're going to be of any use,

some of the big Dewalt torches and metal sub torches.

So I'm going to follow them all, try and get a skin sample.

Great, fantastic, let's go.

Never known a party break up for a reason like this before, it's quite unique.

We're going to head off, that way, yep, there's a convoy of highly enthusiastic people following us.

Now, I hasten to add that Rob, driving, hasn't had a drop to drink.

-Yep.

-Um, I, I try and finish all my parties with a large dead animal theme so we're just going to sweep

the beach, sweep the area, and see if we can find the animal and I can get a skin sample.

We need to hurry because the next tide could wash the shark back out to sea.

Right, the first thing I would like to say is I am lost in admiration

for your tremendous enthusiasm for this mission.

This is Mannin Bay, 13 kilometres of rocky coastline.

And somewhere on there, we don't know where.

We're looking for a jet black body on a dark night on black rocks.

So, here's the plan. If we send two vehicles up here, the most likely place is here,

and one vehicle up here, and then basically just

jump out and have a quick look along the beach whoever goes up here and we'll do the same here.

-If you find it gives us a call and if not shall we just meet back here in?

-One hour.

-One hour.

Surreal way to spend an evening.

Good.

Oh, God, very, very strong smell of ammonia, decomposing sharks,

that's what they smell, basically it's incredibly strong.

Could just be this stuff, let's have a little whiff.

Yeah, I think that,

that's more sulphurous,

it's the gas I think, that sort of rotten eggs smell.

Up ahead of me, I've got mysterious shadowy figures and the mysterious shadowy figures are cows,

a very baffled herd of cows.

I'm wondering what they're doing up so late, but they're probably thinking the same thing about us...

with some justification.

-Any joy?

-We did find a big herd of cows, which was a bit odd.

-Kind of surreal, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

-What a beautiful night for a walk(!)

Yeah, wasn't it?! Right, shall we go home?

Shall we go home. Long day tomorrow.

Well, done, chaps, well done indeed.

It's now...

quarter to one,

and it was a truly heroic effort by everyone,

having stumbled around out there in the dark,

no sign of a basking shark, so I'm going to come back tomorrow.

Which probably would have been the sensible thing to do

in the first place, I hasten to add, but not as much fun.

Next morning, I get a bit more info about the shark's location and the hunt is on again.

I'm leading a team by sea in the hope of spotting some wildlife

along the way and a second group is going on overland.

We've got two big advantages now - it's daylight and we're sober,

which always helps with these things, I think.

Some of the lads have gone round via land so they're going to have a look from the land side.

We're coming in from the sea side, it's a beautiful flat calm day, to run all the way to Slyne Head

and round into Mannin Bay, but we've also got a good intelligence

as to where the shark is now, so I'm pretty confident we're going to find it. So off we go.

Two friends from the UK, Andy and Becks, are along for the ride,

but, more importantly, they're two extra pairs of eyes.

We might be out looking for a dead basking shark, but the first one we spot is very much alive.

It's a basker, 50 metres, 100 metres, small one, but we'll get

a tag into it. Fantastic, fantastic.

Look at that, he's right on the surface as well. Let's get the tag.

This will be, if we get a tag in, the third basking shark ever to be tagged in Connemara.

There he is.

This is a huge bonus.

So little is known about these animals, and tagging them helps scientists build up a picture of

their movements up and down the coast.

He's really motoring, this is called ram filter feeding.

When he's shoving himself through the water, mouth agape,

and I, I haven't seen one move this fast before so I don't know, maybe the plankton isn't as dense, or,

he's a young animal.

He's going to be a really tricky one to tag.

OK, mate, give it a little burst now, just a little burst.

The tagging pole broke.

Right, we'll forget the tag, we'll forget the tag, the tagging pole's pretty knackered really.

What a shame, what a shame, I didn't get a tag in him, but we did get a slime sample

and that black slime, smell it, just smells like fish cos it's a big fish.

Simon is really keen to gather that slime so I'll take that particular sample

and I'll stick it in a little tube of formaldehyde because they can get genetic information from the slime.

So there we are.

Basking shark slime.

The shore team have just radioed to say they've found the basking shark.

But the route to get there involves going through a treacherous gap

in the rocks that I've only ever done with a guide who knows what he's doing.

Beautiful.

Made it.

The shore team are guiding us in.

Becks thinks she's seen the Landy there, the white roof.

Going to go into that beach,

those were the cattle we saw the other night.

Well, done, mate.

-Hello.

-Sober and in daylight.

-That's a much better way to look at basking sharks!

-Much better.

And I think we stood on this rock here. No, no.

It's obviously long dead, but we didn't know that last night

when we must have been within a few feet of it.

You can see why you'd miss it, can't you?

Wow, that's pretty decomposed.

We've walked up with that, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

These used to cause huge consternation

amongst people of old the Victorians, people like that,

because, when a basking shark would wash ashore,

the lower jaw and the gill rakers here would

rot first, would decompose first, so it looked very much like a sea serpent.

The base of the tail would rot away, so it just looks like a sea serpent.

You've got this big eye here and the nose has gone and,

if you didn't know your stuff that's a, that's a sea serpent.

And these are the gill rakers here, and, as the water comes through it

sweeps over the gills, goes out the sides like a jet engine going out the sides, and as it goes out

the side it's caught on these sort of stiffened hairs here.

Every 30 seconds every 40 seconds or so, you'll see it close its mouth, essentially cleaning the gill rake,

getting the food off, then it opens again and it's very efficient.

These have been found with half a tonne of food inside them. Look at that, isn't that amazing.

'The pictures will help Simon to work out how long ago it died

'but the real treasure is locked inside its DNA, so I need to send him a tissue sample for analysis.'

This could be quite a useful sample to take, because one of the snags the researchers have had so far

is that not knowing the sex of the animals that have been

slimed, we've got the slime off them, but we don't know the sex.

I know from the reproductive organs that this is a male.

Even this decomposed, it's incredibly tough.

That's a very, very sharp scalpel.

If you think when I was trying to tag the one an hour ago

that the tag just wouldn't go in, and it was bent up,

this stuff this keeps the shark safe.

We're gonna need a bigger knife.

-Bigger knife.

-We're gonna need a bigger knife.

I think I badly underestimated the job with that one.

Cos that's a good old plug of flesh there.

OK, I'll pop that in there.

-Mate, thank you for that.

-No worries.

Sorry to hand it back sort of covered in basking shark gravy.

Chaps, thank you so much

for your sterling efforts over the last couple of days.

On the way home our luck's really in as the dolphins I've been monitoring put in an appearance.

What d'you know, here are the dolphins.

You only get that face when someone sees a dolphin.

Oh.

Back on dry land, my vision for the Dive Festival is running into trouble.

It's time for Tam to spell out a few financial home truths.

The hog roast is confirmed at 800 euros.

-Right.

-We need to talk about finance and getting people paid.

-Right.

-And taking money out.

I spoke to Philip yesterday, he's our marquee man and he will

set up the marquee and he'll need his money paid on the day as well.

So that's something else we need to have on the check list.

We need to think about sort of a registration desk, cos I think it's the only way

of managing people coming and going, they'll be on the beach, then the marquee, in and out.

-Very true.

-So we need something really easy.

Posters of pets, money to be withdrawn, so if you're happy with that?

If her plan was to shock me, it's worked.

The costs are piling up, and I'm staring at a massive loss for the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.

There's only one solution.

Right, we need to sell about another 100 tickets.

You need just sheer volume of people.

And there's only one way to get them.

-Morning, how are you today?

-I'm very well.

You're basing yourself in Roundstone, what are you doing?

We'll be raising money for a rescue pontoon, they're 5,000 euro, these rescue pontoons,

but crucial for getting a whale or dolphin into the water and there's two in Ireland.

If you want further details on the Roundstone Diving and Wildlife Festival just call us here.

At 11:22 we're back.

Thanks for joining us today and well done.

-Thank you so much, thank.

-Enjoy.

-Really appreciated.

I'm desperately trying to get the word out

about the Dive Festival. People through the door will make all the difference,

don't get people through the door, I'll actually make a loss at the festival, which is not a good thing.

So with that in mind, I'm doing talks in pubs.

This is the Vinnie Jones of dolphins, they are tough, these animals.

In hotels...

We're trying to raise money for a rescue pontoon. It's tarpaulin with two flotation tubes either side.

Done a talk in a school.

Radio station, plastering the place with posters.

I was just wondering if I could stick one of those posters up.

And just doing anything basically to get the word out.

Thank you very much for turning out, cheers.

APPLAUSE

It's 7:30 in the morning, and I'm just driving down to Rossaveal

to spend my first ever day in a Galway hooker,

which is a traditional Irish sailing boat.

I've been invited to take part in a special race that's staged

every year to celebrate the community's seafaring heritage.

And I've never done it before, I've never ever, I'm not really much of a sailor to be honest,

it's specialised, so looking forward to it, should be interesting.

In the old days the hookers used to transport turf, or peat, across

Galway Bay to be used as fuel in the treeless area known as the Burren.

The turf run is commemorated every year by the Kinvara Regatta

and I've been invited to race on The Volunteer tomorrow.

Just heading out of Rossaveal in the capable hands of Joe and Ronan here and heading out to the open sea,

and in fact can see one of the hookers there just sort of leaning right over,

just rounding the headland.

One of my crewmates is Donal Green, a hooker builder steeped in the traditions of this beautiful craft.

It's a very significant vessel in terms of the history of Galway.

It is, and especially the history of Connemara,

this would have been a tradition long ago when boats were trading turf to Kinvara to sell it.

If you go back to after the famine, there was hardly any of the roads we take for granted now,

small roads into the villages would be tracks, so you had no infrastructure,

-so everything was done by boat.

-And Irish is the language you'd speak on board.

-Oh, yes, all the time.

-Yeah, because so many of the things

I guess around the boat, you're obviously going to use Irish terms to describe them.

Well, exactly. Irish is what we always speak.

THEY SPEAK IRISH GAELIC

Although certain things on board still have English names but most of it, most of it's in Irish.

Yeah.

That's going to crack me round the head, it's simply a question of when it's going to.

It's a bit like being in a kitchen, you're always in the wrong place.

The regular crew race this boat in regattas throughout the summer,

but for helmsman Joe Joyce this is a special weekend commemorating, as it does, his forefathers.

These routes we're going along at the moment, your grandfather used to do these, didn't he?

My father and my grandfather.

-Your father and your grandfather.

-Yeah.

Right. So why was it necessary to run turf? Was there just none in the area we're going to?

There's no turf in these areas of Clare, yeah.

It's hard work, isn't it?

Dangerous work as well, cos they didn't have the conveniences that we have

of knowing the weather ahead of time.

-No, no.

-They'd set sail in the morning regardless,

bad days at sea, trying to get the cargo out, get the turf out.

-Trying to get a buyer as well.

-Yeah.

And trying to get it all done, and of course it was the only way

to make a buck as well, it was their livelihood.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Everyone's dad and granddad has sailed these things

all their lives, delivering turf, think of all the years of experience both in the vessel itself,

in the heart of the vessel and in the crew as well. This is an age-old scene of coming alongside a jetty.

Once the tide is high, the boats can moor up in Kinvara to unload their commemorative cargoes of turf.

Shared traditions like this make for a close knit community.

But there would have been fierce competition as well

to get the best trades, and that spirit lives on in the regatta which is just getting underway.

The Volunteer races tomorrow and I'll be in the thick of the action.

It's Sunday.

Before racing can start, there are important traditions to observe.

Remembering hooker sailors, often family members who went to sea and didn't return.

THEY SING

The whole origins of the hooker

was transporting stores around,

getting them across the bay. You brought things like turf which was life, cos it was warmth and heat,

but also you operated at your peril and lots of people in hookers were lost.

The sea was the great provider, the great means of communication, but also

the great predator and took a lot of people.

Lot of people who went out, a few didn't come back,

and that's the reason they get together and just remember those people on the quay here.

But now it's time for the racing to begin.

I'm pretty much a novice, so I'm doing what I'm told,

raising sails, hauling on lines and generally providing a bit of muscle.

All around us, boats are getting ready, but in our class we only have one competitor.

Everyone's split now into their, to their jobs, you've got Donal on the foresail there.

You've got Joe holding the second sail in, and then you've got Ronan

on the main sail, and Padraig at the back there just trying to sort of steer the correct line.

And me as warm ballast basically.

The art here is to get a rolling start across the start line.

Our rival crew is as experienced as they come, and they're already

jockeying to deny us the best position on the start line.

Put out then.

-HORN BLARES

-That's the start, and it's first blood to the competition.

That's our competition basically, it's got maybe 30 yards on us, 40 yards on us. We're right on her bow.

So we're just jostling to see who can be fired out into the real winds in the bay.

It's literally the race for the bay now.

The first leg is about straight line speed, as we make for a turn buoy where the real tactics will begin.

We're going to tack in a second, and it all comes down to the tack,

the efficiency of the crew, cos you lose momentum of course

as you come round the turn. Right, there she is, coming right across our bow now.

Once we round the first buoy, we're sailing into the wind,

and we can only make progress by tacking first one way then the other.

Each time you tack, you cross your rival's path.

It's a real psychological boost to be ahead at that point.

The gap is closing.

It's now neck and neck through a canny bit of tacking.

Working our way up the bay, stolen 30 yards from them, 40 yards, so it's even stevens now.

Here he comes, here he comes.

Coming round again.

That was close,

we'll ram her next time.

This is where the rules of the road apply, one skipper has to give way to another one,

and sometimes it's difficult and occasionally it doesn't happen, occasionally collisions occur.

Now it's our rivals who are playing catch-up and the final buoy will be crucial.

This prompts a desperate attempt by our rivals to cut inside us on the turn - with disastrous results.

Watch your heads, watch your heads.

Tangled up in the other boat's rigging, Padraig is in real danger of being hauled overboard.

Instinctively, Ronan and I rush to keep him on board,

but it's a move that brings us within inches of catastrophe.

I'm shaken, but if the boom had hit me, I could have been killed.

-You all right, man?

-Good, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, fine.

By the time we recover our composure we're way behind, but we're sure the other boat has broken the rules.

Caught on camera, the other boat actually went the wrong side of the buoy, cos they

were so ken to cut inside us, nearly killing Padraig in the process.

Holy moly.

We'll be protesting to the referee, but we still have to make the best finish we can.

Try as we might, the boats are so evenly matched, there's nothing we can do to close the gap.

We're a distant second unless the referee rules in our favour.

The race will come down to each skipper's evidence and an interpretation of the rules.

THEY SPEAK IRISH GAELIC

That's Padraig just being taken off for the enquiry.

And the other skipper will join him on the boat,

which could be one of those awkward social situations.

As we step ashore, the regatta party is in full swing,

but after our close call none of us feel like joining in.

The race just out of interest has been declared void, so all that effort and emotion,

but for me it was a lot more than a race,

it was a chance to get out in a historic boat in Galway Bay,

and do a voyage that's been done for many hundreds of years

with descendants of the guys who originally did it.

So it's been a great experience all round. Learnt some Irish as well, none of which are repeatable here.

So, very good.

It's August, as you can tell by the leaden grey skies outside,

and my emphasis has changed ever so slightly in that I think

I really want to raise the money for this pontoon, this rescue pontoon, and the pressure is on

because they cost 4,000 euro, they're very expensive bits of kit, and I haven't got long to raise it.

One of the things I'm doing is a talk tonight

in the community hall in Roundstone, I'm hoping to get 250 people there.

To do that talk I need great photos, and, there's a wreck down here, a shipwreck, but apparently

it's beautiful and has terrific marine life on it, so I'm towing the rig down,

I'll do a dive there, get some photos, show them to the people of Roundstone and the people of Clifden

and raise lots of money hopefully.

That is the plan.

It's a very appropriate setting, cos it's quite wild and woolly,

it's a bit of a blustery wind, just a few white horses kicking around, and of course

this is a shipwreck, but it was a shipwreck that was actually put down

as a dive site, they're amazing focal points for marine life.

And this is very heavily colonised, this one, and I'm hoping

for some great photos, sitting totally upright on the seabed and they're always lovely to dive,

ships, it's always very evocative, it's rather like exploring an old haunted house that's full of vermin

and animals and bats and all that stuff and you fly through it.

Let's go, let's get on with it and see what we find down there, maybe treasure, who knows?

'The wreck is an island supply boat that was sunk 12 years ago'

Very good, well worth it, well worth it, now dash back, set up the community hall,

and raise my first bit of money for this pontoon.

This is where it all begins, hopefully.

It's about 7am, it's the morning

of the inaugural Roundstone Diving and Wildlife Festival,

an event that is almost entirely dependent on decent weather.

Although it's been absolutely lovely for about a month or so,

so I'm going to throw open the curtains and see whether we've been blessed with glorious sunshine

or whether the weather is honking.

It's a bit honking.

Actually, it's quite honking, but what can you do? Just got to get on with it, haven't you?

I've seen better days, and I've seen worse days as well.

So if the rain stays off...

'It's like a ghost town with just one inhabitant.

'Paddy the hog roast man, who's been getting up every 15 minutes

'throughout the night to make minute adjustments to tonight's supper.'

-Wow, she's huge.

-Initially I was supposed to go for 35 kilos for our target,

unobtainable, so we have 80.

80 kilos, that's fantastic!

But gradually we're joined by the main players, and the festival site starts to take shape.

Sun's just come out, that's a great sign.

The hog roast is cooking away, the smell, unbelievable, it's like

a tractor beam drawing people in and strangely enough, there's our first couple of tickets sold.

There we go, no worries, see you later.

Hello, how are you doing? I'm very well, very well.

'That burst of publicity is paying off,

'to my not inconsiderable relief the euros are starting to trickle in.'

This is how I'd imagined it.

Opening up the secrets of the seashore, while a curious public opens up their collective wallets.

Up at the marquee there's a raft of entertainment on hand to guarantee

good value for money, along with food from the sea.

While down on the beach, Simon has the crowd in the palm of his hand,

teaching them about the wildlife off their coast.

And the try dive sessions are introducing loads of new divers

to an underwater world now shimmering in the sunlight.

There's been a dramatic turnaround, I'm pleased to say, and as I kind of thought might happen,

was hoping would happen, the sun's come out, it's a beautiful Connemara day, Gurteen just looks superb.

You've got the intro dives going on down here,

a whale being inflated down there, which is a novel thing, you don't see that on a beach every day.

The talks are packed, absolutely packed, there isn't a spare seat in the place.

So I'm absolutely delighted.

And the highlight of the whole day is coming up.

Simon is about to show how all the money raised today will be spent.

You get about 20 live stranding events a year, now an event might be a single dolphin,

or it might be up to 40 pilot whales like we had in Kerry in 2001.

But obviously the pilot whale, you really need the pontoons, so I'll show you the pontoons now.

The pontoon consists of two inflatable cylinders with a canvas floor that's rigged between them

to hold a stranded animal until it has the strength to swim off under its own steam.

For the demo, Simon has filled the inflatable whale with water so it weighs as much as the real thing.

It's a realistic demonstration of just how hard it would be to float a live animal back out to sea.

You can see what a monumental task it is

to get an animal this size back into the water, hardly any surf today, and obviously this is just

a big old bag full of sea water, it's not thrashing, it's not heaving around,

so this is why the pontoon is vital.

Try and do this without a pontoon, you're in real trouble, you know, you're really going to struggle,

and the longer you struggle the more stressful it is for the whale, the more chance the whale dies.

Obviously this is the whole rationale of the whole weekend

really, to try and get one of these pontoons.

Imagine doing this without the pontoon, just wasting your time,

with an animal that's thrashing and heaving around.

So this is the whole reason we're trying to get one.

Safe, simple piece of kit, but very well designed

actually, we were a bit messy there putting it on, but you know.

Well done, superb.

-Well done, Simon.

-APPLAUSE

It's been a quite simply tremendous day, really has been blessed

with the weather, and the money's just steadily clicked in, and now we're moving onto the evening phase,

we've got a brilliant band turning up and I'm hoping for about 150 200 people at the party tonight.

So we'll have a big old auction and then tomorrow morning, count the money and see if it's worked.

110. 105.

135, 130, that's great.

RAUCOUS FOLK MUSIC

APPLAUSE

I'm distinctly nervous about how much we might have made,

and as Tam counts the cash, I can't bring myself to watch, there's just too much riding on the final tally.

It's the morning after the night before

and there's that slightly stunned feel to the whole thing.

I think a phenomenal exercise,

in terms of resonance for the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and getting

people in the water, and we made that happen and that's great.

But the money is being counted by Tam at the moment, so...

financially we'll find out if it's all been worth it in a sec.

Remember when the day started we were 3,000 euros in the red,

and we need 5,000 for the pontoon.

I think we have a final figure.

Well, I think we've definitely raised a thousand euros at least, if not more.

A thousand euros, a thousand euros.

Now that is fantastic, that is fantastic, really because...

'With money from the auction and other pledges to come,

'the final figure should be more than double that.

'There's no way I could have done this without Tam, but I still have nearly

'3,000 euros to raise, so I need some more money-spinning ideas to keep the pontoon dream alive.

Next time, the moment of truth as I haul up the acoustic pod.

The really exciting science is right there.

A sure sign my idyllic summer is coming to an end.

If ever there was a harbinger of the change of seasons

it's starting to see the seal pups away from their mums.

And a last chance to swim with the sharks that will soon migrate to warmer waters.

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