Falcon on the foremast of the Esperanza(C) Greenpeace/Kate Davison
After all the bottom trawler excitement of Sunday, things have quietened down. Even the lashing of the waves has eased a little - the wind has dropped, and instead of the 'white horses' dancing on top of big waves, the Esperanza has to climb over a big lumbering swell, making the ship roll from side-to-side. In my bunk at night, I can hear objects lazily sliding from port to starboard and back again, inside drawers and lockers.
We're further north than before, and it's become much colder. Yesterday morning, Maikke saw what looked like a waterspout - a vertical column of spray, thrown up from the sea by a whirling wind. Later, it snowed for a while, big mushy wet flakes from a grey sky, clogging the wipers on the bridge windows. And in the afternoon, a handful of us were lucky enough to spot a small pod of pilot whales breaching off the bow. Ollie put the word out around the ship, causing a clamour of crew on the bow. Unfortunately, the whales vanished, and didn't reappear.
Today we had another sighting - this time a single sperm whale. It appeared in front of the ship, and blew a spume of water before diving down deep -they can stay down for up to 45 mins on a single breath.
We've had a few other curious creatures turning up out here, in the middle of the ocean, 400 miles from land - some small land birds, one was apparently a redwing, and another, with a weird cocked-up little hairstyle, has so far remained anonymous. We've even had a small brown bird of prey -a falcon, hanging out on the foremast.
- Dave
Comments
Nice surprises those small migratory birds landing onto the Esperanza. Those are probably birds having left central Scandinavia or Iceland which have been disoriented by the heavy storms of the preceeding days. Do they stay several hours / days on board ? Have you tried to feed your exhausted flying visitors in order they regain enough energy for heading south?
