North of the Equator en route to Cape Verde
After successfully and safely crossing the equator and paying King Neptune’s toll yesterday, we awoke this morning to another blissful day at sea in the tropics. Our resident expert wildlife spotter, Richard White, was hard at work throughout the day finding various species of birds busily scouring the ocean for their next meals. Shearwaters and petrels were most commonly seen, but we also encountered a few Long-tailed Jaegers resting upon the surface in between meals. Richard’s keen eyes rarely miss anything out here in the expanses of open sea, and though birds are certainly his specialty and passion, he isn’t opposed to keeping a lookout for marine mammals and other animals of interest as well. Alternating between posts on the bridge, the wing stations, and occasionally up the crow’s nest; he spied a slew of flying fish, the odd sea turtle and a couple of groups of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins. He is so adept at spotting, in fact, it’s a real rarity when he DOESN’T find something, even though we are passing through an area of the Atlantic that is largely devoid of surface wildlife; especially in comparison with those more southerly latitudes through which we’ve previously sailed.
Even so, his near bionic eyes can’t be everywhere at once, but his dedication and enthusiasm for spotting has brought many of us out on the foredeck and the wing stations to join in the hunt. Such was the case early this afternoon when several of us were out on the port wing station, enjoying the rolling swells and inviting breeze. We were discussing the various species we’ve encountered thus far when Tim Sparks spotted a group of animals off our port bow still a good kilometer away. The tall dorsal fins cutting through the waves had us guessing and hoping for a new species. And sure enough, to our delight the group of animals turned out to be Risso’s Dolphins, a squid-eating species of dolphin with a global, albeit patchy, distribution at these latitudes. They seemed preoccupied with foraging and would disappear into the depths for minutes at a time, but we were still treated to some nice views at the surface in between their dives.
So, even though is quite tempting to laze away the day in the lounge chairs or in the pool on these warm days at sea, thanks to the tireless efforts of Richard and many on board are learning that there are benefits to keeping our eyes on the sea and not just our various books and magazines. After all, Yogi Berra said it best, “you can observe a lot, just by watching.”
After successfully and safely crossing the equator and paying King Neptune’s toll yesterday, we awoke this morning to another blissful day at sea in the tropics. Our resident expert wildlife spotter, Richard White, was hard at work throughout the day finding various species of birds busily scouring the ocean for their next meals. Shearwaters and petrels were most commonly seen, but we also encountered a few Long-tailed Jaegers resting upon the surface in between meals. Richard’s keen eyes rarely miss anything out here in the expanses of open sea, and though birds are certainly his specialty and passion, he isn’t opposed to keeping a lookout for marine mammals and other animals of interest as well. Alternating between posts on the bridge, the wing stations, and occasionally up the crow’s nest; he spied a slew of flying fish, the odd sea turtle and a couple of groups of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins. He is so adept at spotting, in fact, it’s a real rarity when he DOESN’T find something, even though we are passing through an area of the Atlantic that is largely devoid of surface wildlife; especially in comparison with those more southerly latitudes through which we’ve previously sailed.
Even so, his near bionic eyes can’t be everywhere at once, but his dedication and enthusiasm for spotting has brought many of us out on the foredeck and the wing stations to join in the hunt. Such was the case early this afternoon when several of us were out on the port wing station, enjoying the rolling swells and inviting breeze. We were discussing the various species we’ve encountered thus far when Tim Sparks spotted a group of animals off our port bow still a good kilometer away. The tall dorsal fins cutting through the waves had us guessing and hoping for a new species. And sure enough, to our delight the group of animals turned out to be Risso’s Dolphins, a squid-eating species of dolphin with a global, albeit patchy, distribution at these latitudes. They seemed preoccupied with foraging and would disappear into the depths for minutes at a time, but we were still treated to some nice views at the surface in between their dives.
So, even though is quite tempting to laze away the day in the lounge chairs or in the pool on these warm days at sea, thanks to the tireless efforts of Richard and many on board are learning that there are benefits to keeping our eyes on the sea and not just our various books and magazines. After all, Yogi Berra said it best, “you can observe a lot, just by watching.”
