Sean Morley has whales and sharks on his list of sea companions

Sean Morley, who faced sharks earlier in his trip, was confronted by a whale rising from the sea and crashing down.

It happened as he approached South Uist, near the Isle of Skye, the halfway mark of his trip.

The 38-year-old traffic police officer from St Erth was showered in a hail of spray in his tiny vessel.

Record-breaker

His next leg will see him paddling to St Kilda, 41 miles west of Benbecula in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

A former member of the Great Britain kayak racing team, he has already had a close encounter with sharks near the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland, and met the self-styled "king" of an Irish island.

His journey, scheduled to last six months, began in Falmouth in Cornwall on 3 April.

His route is taking him on the seaward side of every inhabited island that makes up Great Britain and Ireland.

They include: the Isles of Scilly, the Channel Islands, the Orkneys and Shetlands, as well as the remotest corner of the British Isles, St Kilda - the isolated Atlantic outpost 41 miles west of Benbecula in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

He has already completed several record-breaking paddles, including a crossing of the St George's Channel and a 500-mile circumnavigation of Scotland.

His current trip is raising money for the RNLI and the Marine Conservation Society.