Friday, February 11, 2011

Low Pressure Blues

The crap weather has really foiled my plans this time. I made the mistake of leaving some of my gear, including essential items every naturalist should never leave home without (i.e. telephoto lens, binoculars, bird book, and head lamp), on the Finnmarken. I didn’t want to carry them onto the Gateway, and was supposed to transfer back to the Finnmarken before flying out of Barrow. But a series of low pressure systems have frightened the Finnmarken and the rest of the fleet away, leaving us behind to continue working. Now my items are in a box at the Boskalis office in Dampier… The Gateway was scheduled to sail to Dampier for a crew change and to fix the crane…but bad weather may keep us from doing that. SO no I have a box waiting for me, but no way to get to it, and I don’t want to leave Barrow without it. Not sure how this is all going to work out, but I need to be back in Sydney by Thursday to make my flight to New Zealand on Friday. Damn you cyclones!

I don’t doubt that I’ll make it to NZ eventually with my naturalist gear; I may just have to cut a few days out of my trip. I’ll potentially be spending 8 days (18-25 of Feb) in Kaikoura, where I hope to overdose on Procellariiformes. This is not the latest and greatest drug, it’s an order of birds commonly known as the “tubenoses”; albatross, shearwaters, petrels, storm-petrels, prions, and fulmars. These birds are extremely abundant in the Southern Ocean, with numerous species not found in the northern hemisphere. Needless to say I’ll be in birding heaven. Even the hostel I’ll be staying in is called The Albatross. I should also see New Zealand Fur Seals, Common Dolphins, Dusky Dolphins, possible Hector’s Dolphins, and hopefully with little effort a few Sperm Whales.

The next step is figuring out how to get off this damn boat…

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