WAVE-WATCHING WITH THE BIRDERS
Today has been my day-off from classes, so I spent most of the morning working in the cabin.
It’s been a glorious day outside on deck, however, so at a convenient point, I headed upstairs to join Tracey at the front of the ship, where the serious wildlife-gazers gather.
All around the ship, there’s a pleasingly relaxed air; passengers lounging on the back deck, supping tea and reading the daily blurb, or ‘Britain Today’ (which is our daily printed dose of what’s happening at home). The sea has remained calm, and conditions have remained perfect for spotting any sea-life activity that there may be out there.
A small group of bird-spotters, who we first met on the Amazon trip, on the Magellan last year, are here again, with their long lenses and invaluable knowledge of everything feathery. Upon reaching the front of the ship, I was informed that I’d already missed two sightings of turtles and a handful of shearwaters. No dolphin sightings today, though.
In the time that I spent there, I too saw a turtle, a couple of birds and a few flying fish, which we expect to increase in numbers once we are the other side of the Cape Verdi Islands.
After lunch, Tracey returned to the task of wave-watching, and I returned to my online student-ing duties downstairs. Mid-afternoon, once I’d completed all that I intended to complete today, my plan was to log-on to the ship’s wifi to upload some stuff and check emails, then to return to the upper deck with my binoculars.
Unfortunately, such is the on-board internet access that a couple of small jobs that would have taken me no more than 10 or 15 minutes, finished up taking me over an hour and a half. I’m sure dial-up was quicker.
Tomorrow, we are due to arrive in the first of our two Cape Verde Island port stops, Mindelo. The temperature is expected to rise quite a bit, and I need a hat (having discovered that a sun hat is the thing that I’ve forgotten, when I was certain that I’d forgotten something but simply couldn’t think what… now I know).
