Rain?

“The sea was angry that day”, that day being today. I woke up from a rocking bed to the sight of numerous white caps through my porthole window. The first beauford +5 conditions since my time on the Sunshine Coast. They threatened to cancel the crew transfers this morning, but after a bumpy wet ride we made out to the Taurus. Surprisingly it’s been raining all morning, something I thought never happened in this dry and inhospitable climate. I wonder what kind of growth will emerge on the island after a well needed soaking. The brilliant white caps and streaking rain is reminiscent of those many stormy mornings of Monterey Bay winters, chasing parasite infested Gray Whales as they navigated the rugged coastline. It was so cool in fact that I felt the urge to roll my sleeves down, but didn’t act on it.

The seabirds as usual are reviling in the breezy conditions, harnessing those forces born from the interaction of the wind on the sea, in their pursuit of any tasty morsel they detect with an acute olfactory since. The seabirds I’m speaking of are those sparrow sized storm petrels which flutter and dance in the wind as they walk along the tops of the swells, picking off tiny crustacean and fish larvae, copepods, and any other small planktonic organisms that occupy the upper limits of the water column. One Wilson’s Storm Petrel flew close enough to the vessel for me to photograph; notice the white patch on its rump which betrays its specific identity. This small bird is a relative of one of the most majestic birds of the ocean, the albatross; although you’d never guess from its size.

The bird with the forked tail and black wings fringed with white is a Bridled Tern, which circled the vessel for quite a while looking for a good place to land.