The (Big) Year that Flew By by Arjan Dwarshuis

Author:Arjan Dwarshuis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

We head south. Soon we find ourselves on the high seas, and the Cape has been reduced to a speck on the horizon. The same horizon regularly disappears from view for several seconds at a time due to the ocean swell. I see Camilla turn white.

Then Clifford shouts, “Albatross! Portside!”

A moment later, a Black-browed Albatross glides past the boat at a distance of merely 20 yards. We can follow the bird for several minutes, and all the while it doesn’t have to flap its wings even once. Being this close, we can clearly see its light orange beak and dark eye stripe.

“What a great sight, don’t you think?”

Camilla raises her thumb but immediately turns green and manages to find the railing just in time. Luckily for her, she’s not the only one. Three other participants soon follow suit and I, too, have great difficulty suppressing my nausea. But for everyone on the boat, seeing albatrosses is a dream come true, so we bravely press on.

As we head farther out to sea, the number of seabird sightings increases. We see White-chinned and Cape Petrels, Antarctic Prions, and Wilson’s Storm Petrels. The last are not much bigger than a starling and regularly paddle on the water, allowing us to occasionally see the bright yellow webs between their toes.

Then Clifford starts pointing and shouts excitedly, “There’s a fishing boat out there, pulling in its nets!”

He turns the wheel. We bounce over the water at 25 miles an hour, and the few who were not yet seasick are now vomiting just like the rest. Ten minutes later we have reached the fishing boat. The pulleys at the back of the fishing boat are running at full speed to raise the net with heavy steel cables from the depths. Thousands of opportunistic seabirds swim and fly behind the boat, hoping to get their share. I have never seen anything like it. Four species of albatrosses fly crisscross over one another and sometimes skim just past our boat.

I notice that a few yards above the steel cables, two more lines are fluttering with long, bright orange ribbons. A Shy Albatross flies straight toward the cables, but at the sight of the orange ribbons, it swerves at the last moment and lands safely on the water a little farther away.

Just before we have to return to the port, Clifford suddenly starts shouting: “Grey-headed Albatross! Portside, right next to the boat!”

Two yards away, an albatross with a gray head and a black beak is bobbing on the water. We can’t believe our eyes: This is South Africa’s first sighting in five years. We go completely crazy, and even Camilla, who has donated her entire stomach contents to the sea, gets a bit of color on her face from pure excitement.

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