An albatross visits next to the Rainbow Warrior (C) Greenpeace / Grace
It feels really bizarre being hundreds of miles from anywhere, with several of kilometres of water underneath us. Apart from the ever-changing sky and the infinite waves, there's little to see. That doesn't stop many of us from sitting up in the bridge, or standing out on deck, watching the spray coming over the bows, or watching the moonlight on the swell.
Visitors come to the Rainbow Warrior, albatrosses that swing by, fly around, stay awhile, then vanish. Lesley, our medic, is an avid alba-spotter, and has so far have identified juvenile black-browed mollymawks, and some dark-coloured juvenile wandering albatrosses.
Over the last few days, Roger's been out on deck, armed with his camera, 'shooting duck'. Wooly has been standing beside him, making quacking noises (click for mp3), to coax in the big curious birds... and which weirdly enough, seems to work.
The birds we've seen aren't massive by any means - they don't reach the 3-metre-plus wingspan of the adult wandering albatross, or even the 2.2 metres of the adult black-browed. But they're still big. Accompanied by darker, smaller petrels, the albatrosses glide so low that they disappear behind the swell, going out of sight for several seconds. Then they soar up and away on the wind, covering great distances without flapping their wings. The big albatrosses are the largest seabirds anywhere, and they can stay aloft almost indefinitely, returning home only to mate, or to feed their young.
Albatross feed on various squid, and fish offal, which is why they like following trawlers, and will do so for hours at a time, occasionally grabbing some choice food scraps. Albatrosses are though to live to well over thirty, and even up to forty years old.
We're just a few days out to sea, so the albatrosses haven't lost their novelty value yet. We're hoping they never do.
