Two days were spent on crossing the sea, and while the conditions weren’t quite as calm as we had experienced in previous crossings it was still very manageable. We had clear visibility for most of the crossing which gave optimal conditions for bird watching and looking out for whales and various other mammals.
If you weren’t into spending all your time outside in the at times chilly weather there were regular presentations and talks of various parts of the wildlife and flora we would have a chance of seeing on the tour. Much of it was quite interesting, some of it not quite so but worked as an excuse to take a break from standing outside and getting warm again.
Two black-browed albatrosses.
Royal, wandering and black-browed albatrosses and a couple of white-chinned petrels.
Blue-eyed shag.
With a bit of cropping you see what the albatross is looking at.
Royal and wandering albatross.
Being on such a tour it’s always important to have a camera nearby – wildlife does not respect your breaks or times off; they show up whenever they want. So in the middle of dinner I thought I saw something so I grabbed the camera and rushed out. I normal reaction when seeing someone during a meal rush out with a camera is that a few others grab theirs and run with hoping they’ll find out what was spotted. Nobody followed me to my surprise, but that meant I seemed to be the sole spotter of a pod of southern right whale dolphins. They were far away but the photos I got were confirmed by the guides afterwards. I felt pretty happy about the result, especially because they disappeared shortly after I had made it outside with my camera.
Southern right whale dolphins.
Otherwise being outside resulted in numerous sights of wandering, royal and black-browed albatrosses which were such magnificent birds. The wingspans are absolutely amazing when seeing them up close!
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