Crew Blog

Goodbye Albatross

29 April 2008

Another tough day in South Africa, or at least on 544 square feet of it! This racing business is hard! The sun shines, not a cloud in sight. We are flying the spinnaker, which requires little effort as the wind is a steady Force 4 to 5. “Miss Daisy” is so content she glides along with barely a twitch on her helm. We seem superfluous as she sails on to her destination in Panama. The crew uniform is bikini tops, shorts, t-shirts, sunglasses and lots of sun cream. The only thing missing in my opinion are huge tubs of Chunky Monkey ice cream.

After a long, “hard” days of racing, under a blistering sky, the tired crew retires to their bunks content with a suntan and “panda eyes” (the very enviable fashion of sunglasses’ tan lines). We are treated to spectacular starry nights, so warm that for the first time since the South China Sea “oilies” are unnecessary to go on watch in.

Happy birthday on the 30th, James.
Patricia

Goodbye Albatross

It was about 500 nautical miles south of Santa Cruz that we likely spotted our last albatross (a Laysan) on this 07-08 Race.

Being a keen amateur ornithologist, it was the frustration at being unable to identify the bird (later identified as a juvenile Madeiran Storm Petrel) that spent the night on the radar post whilst we sailed past the island of Madeira that prompted the email to my wife in California. Thereafter a purchase on Amazon and a delivery to the family in Durban, we are now the proud owner of a photographic guide called “Seabirds of the World” by Peter Harrison. A few birds that I managed to identify from notes previously made were the beautiful Pintado Petrel (aka the Cape Pigeon), the Wilsons Petrel, The Blue Petrel and the Cape Gannet.

In the race across the Southern Ocean the guide proved its worth when we spotted and positively identified our first albatross. The Wandering Albatross was spectacular as it floated with ease over mountainous waves and in 40 knot winds and it must have looked on with bemusement at our terrified facial expressions wondering what all the fuss was about. In total we have positively identified 10 of the 16 albatrosses in the guide; eight in the Southern Ocean and two of the three found in the Northern Pacific. Albatrosses are long-lived and usually pair for life. The generally feed on fish, squid and refuse thrown over from ships’ galleys, thus explaining why we saw many following us. Unfortunately plastics, other non-biodegradable materials thrown overboard plus long-line fishing are contributing to an overall decline of the species.

Albatrosses are generally easier to identify compared to most of the other seabirds where a short glimpse is the most one will get. The exception was the Red-footed Booby we managed to identify during the race to Singapore in the Sundra Straits where we had a group of them diving for flying fish that we roused by the wake of the boat. Unfortunately one was unimpressed by Clare’s inability to scare up more flying fish and deposited the contents of its stomach over her - some said this was supposed to signify good luck!

Although we have probably seen our last albatross, hopefully some calm sailing through the Caribbean and up the North American coast will enable us many more sightings.

Ian