BOOBY-WATCHING

It’s been my day off today, so I’ve spent most of it, between breakfast, lunch and occasional cups of tea, catching up on work ready for when we next get decent wi-fi, and pottering around on deck watching the birds following the ship.

Mostly, these have been Masked Boobies; predominantly white birds with streamlined heads and large yellow beaks, and a few dark markings on their wings. Roughly the same as seagulls in size, they swoop in and glide alongside the ship, diving headlong into the water periodically, and then bobbing back up to the surface often with a fish in their beaks, if their catch has been successful. Imagine having to do that every time you’re hungry…

They seem to appear out of nowhere, usually in groups of three or four, feed for a bit, then fly off into the distance, only to return some time later to repeat the process.

There have been no reports of dolphins today, and the flying fish seem to be reducing in numbers and size. It has been recommended that we keep our eyes our for Albatrosses, though, which are huge, with wingspans of up to 12 feet! Apparently they are common the South Atlantic and North Pacific, and rarely land, spending the majority of their lives in the air.

Once again, we finished the day off with a movie night; the penultimate in our Harry Potter season saw HP, Hermione and Ron learning all about the Deathly Hallows, camping on the top of Malham Cove, and preparing for their final battle against the evil dark lord he-who-should-not-be-named. As on previous nights, this was followed by a late-night cup of tea and a stroll around the moonlit decks… we know how to live…