Cute little Melon-headed whale - with calf!
Melon-headed whales (peponocephala)
White tailed tropicbird coming to say hello!
Spotted dolphin checking me out (note white on beak)
Streaked shearwater in our wake3/8/07
We sailed back out of Apra Harbor from Guam once again, hopeful that the horrible weather we had seen 5 days before had passed through. We sailed the same route – up north around the west side of Guam, then cut east and then south. Right out of the harbor we came upon a big group of sperm whales, literally 8 miles from shore (out from Tumon Bay, no less, the most heavily populated area!). We were also greeted by lots of Streaked shearwaters “streaking” by us, flying to the north-northeast from their nesting areas. They’re cool birds, very big shearwaters, and mostly white (on the underside). The weather was interesting – really huge swell, riding the front of a storm, but the wind hadn’t caught up to us yet. So, the first couple days we had really calm conditions, but still huge swell. Then the wind arrived and it all turned to crap – we couldn’t even survey one day because of the danger of slipping!
The first week we saw striped dolphins, huge schools of skipjack tuna, bowriding Melon-headed whales – with cute little calves!, pseudorca, a Bryde’s whale, Sei whale, and some pomarine jaegers. Even though that sounds like a lot, spread that out over 7 days, and it gets pretty boring! One sighting per day, the rest of the time staring into a sea of emptiness...The most exciting thing was that we were joined by 1, then 2, then 4 Red-foot and Brown boobies! The front bow mast got too crowded after two boobies squeezed on and started squabbling, so the other two birds perched on the main mast above the flying bridge. Very fun to watch them swoop down and dive for flying fish, preen themselves, and just act like, well, boobs! They’re pretty silly birds – I picture them talking like surfers – “Hey dude, this is my perch, man...” and “Yo, did you check out that fish, man, it was huge!”...(Kinda like the turtles from Finding Nemo)...I know, I’m still a dork. Anyways, with the birds’ presence we were also blessed with, well, their bird poop! It’s dangerous when a bird is perched in front of you and there’s strong winds blowing towards you! I didn’t get pegged, but more than one of us did. Plus the whole front of the bow turned a lovely color of white over the course of two days. Luckily the big waves washed it all clear pretty quickly...
3/17/07
Oh man. Save the drama for your mama. That’s my new slogan. It’s becoming a bit like a soap opera out here – “As the Kahana Rolls” or “Days of Our Lives: At Sea”. Without going into all the details (those of you who really want to know will have to come visit me in Santa Cruz and buy me some beers), and without incriminating anyone, I’ll try to explain the last couple days...So much to tell! I think a lot of the drama is created by people who live on the same boat with each other for 3-4-5 months at a time. It’s also perpetuated by inherently dramatic (shall I say Drama Queen?) and egotistical people. Anyways, words like “idiot” (and worse) plus “usurption of power” have been used to people in charge of driving the boat, leading the cruise, making the decisions, etc. I can’t even believe some of it, but believe me there are going to be some good fireworks going off on the last leg – just in time for me to share with you when I return to CA! Lately, when I’m on watch on the flying bridge with Cornelia and Richard, we’ve taken to having “Gossip Hour” because it seems like daily (sometimes even hourly!) something new has happened that is pretty major. In the end it’s all pretty silly, as all gossip is, but I guess it adds to the experience out here...one I won’t forget for a while...
Other things we’ve seen so far is a mixed-species group of Pilot whales, Rough-toothed dolphins, and Bottlenose dolphins! Very cool to see...Also saw more sperm whales (no ramming this time around!) – with bottlenose dolphins playing around the sperm whale calf, spotted dolphins, more pilot whales...For the Bird nerds: saw long-tailed jaegers, Flesh-foot shearwaters, Mottled petrel (very cool bird), streaked shearwater in our wake, Matsudaira’s storm petrel, and little shearwater (very auk-like – and cute!)...
We cruised South all the way downswell to 10 degrees N of the equator, then bid adieu to summery weather and promptly turned around and headed back North into the wind and waves coming from Asia. We also ran into more smog from China – although they still say it was a volcanic explosion. Whatever it is, it’s pretty gross smelling and irritating to the throat, and pretty sad to see pollution in the middle of the ocean over the deepest trench in the world, with nothing within hundreds of miles to create the pollution. Just birds, mammals and fish absorbing it all...
We headed back into Guam, and I’ve been planning my trip to Rota, a quaint little island north of Guam. It should be nice to relax and get away, refresh for the grand finale of Leg 4...(!!!!).
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