All aboard the Yorkshire Belle

Back in the spring, Jack and Marianna bought us tickets for a birdwatching trip from Bridlington, on the Yorkshire Belle, as a joint birthday present. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds organises these each spring and summer, along the E Yorks coast (home to many seabirds, and a site for seeing migrant birds too).
The day had its ups and downs, and not just because of the strong swell out beyond Bridlington harbour.  I think I took some of the worst bird photos of my life, just not being in the frame of mind to concentrate properly. In fairness, the heavy mist that soon descended didn't help. I also got seasick about halfway through: almost unheard of, for me.  So I've gone with an image of the boat today, not blurry birds in fog. There is a bird in the extra though, from before mist and seasickness got too much.
I'd also persuaded Richard that we should go by train: it's as quick from here as the car, and as our trip was a late afternoon one, I wanted to avoid the potential stresses of a long drive back in the dark. And I'm keen to minimise carbon emissions.
R was sceptical, worrying about the well-known unreliability of local trains these days. 'No, no', I reassured him, 'it'll be fine...'
You can guess the rest. The outward journey was fine; the train we'd booked for the return was cancelled ('unavailability of a crew member'). We could see many other cancellations on the station boards too. Fortunately for us, a helpful member of staff at Brid station got us onto a Hull service at the last minute. We then had a surreal 2 hour wait in Hull station, watching passing flocks of hen parties and other Saturday night revellers as they moved through the station. Meanwhile we watched the boards like hawks for any signs of our last train out being cancelled. In terms of photos, I'd have done better with the hen parties, I think, than I'd done earlier with the seabirds.
Anyway: the last train did run, and we got home soon after midnight.
You can't win them all... :-)