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March 28, 2005

The Unidentified Swimming Object (USO)

imgdTqZsm.jpg Derek, the Rainbow Warrior's captain, stood by the toaster stirring the tea in his favourite red and white mug. "They've seen a whale up there you know," he remarked calmly. Feeling stupid, Matilda and I immediately flung our toast aside and, arming ourselves with cameras, raced to the bridge. It was an absolutely glorious day, the sea smooth and calm, and very little wind. Unfortunately, if there was a whale, it wasn't staying around to enjoy the sunshine. Libby, our marine biologist, says our maritime friend could have been a Finless Porpoise or a minke whale, but we can't be sure. So it is noted in our survey as an unidentified cetacean, or USO (Unidentified Swimming Object) as Dave and I prefer to call it.

Disappointed at such a close brush with our sought-after marine mammals, we all prepared to continue whale watching in case it came back.

I wonder how any whale or porpoise would navigate itself amongst the fisheries staked out along the coast - there are assorted buoys, flags, nets and fishing boats dotted the entire length of the coast. Flocks of seagulls are sitting outside eagerly eyeing the fishing buoys. There are especially a lot of squid fisheries in this area, and Mr Mun, the font of incredible knowledge (dental and otherwise), tells me the area is famous for its fish and sushi restaurants.

Meanwhile, we saw conflicting sights on the coastal land - a huge nuclear power plant, but further along a small yet very functional wind farm. I honestly don't understand why people think wind farms are ugly, they remind me of big dandelions with the seeds blown off. Once we reached the wind farm we put up the Rainbow Warrior's beautiful sails, with deckhands Sam and Jeena (apologies for earlier mis-spellings, Jeena) learning to climb the mast and work with the sails. Some of the crew skimmed around the ship in the inflatables doing boat training, as we watched with binoculars from deck (I had to laugh at Phil, the outboard mechanic, calmly sitting on the edge of an inflatable giving driving hints to Caterina. He is Mr Unruffled - he even wears his spectacles in the inflatables like a very calm office worker.) On the bridge, Oscar fired up U2 on the ipod. Mexican food for lunch topped off a lovely morning (who needs more from life than Mexican food, U2, sea and sunshine, I'd like to know?!) It helped to offset my computer fatigue anyway.

Now however the weather is picking up and we're going to batten down for the night. The wind is literally whistling through the Warrior's masts. Even though I have a sneaking feeling that this is the calm before the storm, it was nice to have our day in the sun.

Posted by Adele at March 28, 2005 02:40 PM

Comments

porque no hacen una fabrica de procesamiento de japoneces y koreanos????????????

Posted by: leonardo agosta at April 26, 2005 05:06 AM