A Day at Sea *

[Michele Nel]

I have been wanting to do a pelagic trip for a very long time but I have a unreasonable fear of water. For two years I have been telling myself to book a trip during Sept/Oct - apparently one of the better times to be out at sea in our waters. That means booking well in advance and that meant many weeks of stressing about the upcoming trip. Needless to say it remained a “thought” until last week when I picked up on Facebook that there were cancellations for Saturday’s trip.
My hubby had just been asking me what I would like for my birthday..so without thinking I jumped up and asked him if I could have a pelagic trip. Well in about half an hour I had myself booked on Saturday’s trip…..only 4 nights of sleeplessness and worry as opposed to a few weeks. Good move I thought to myself. The weather forecast for Saturday was promising but as I drove over the mountain to Simonstown I noticed huge banks of mist rolling in. Too late I thought..you will get on that boat. I was well prepared for this trip… I had taken preventative sea-sick medication the night before as well as one in morning. I could have done with a tranquiliser though.
Without much ado we had our briefing on shore and within a few minutes our boat sailed into the harbour. Well this is when I nearly said “Toss it…there is just no ways I am going out to sea on that dinky boat !!!! “

Zest II…all 20 m of it entering the harbour.



But I was bustled along and before I knew it I was on that dinky boat listening to the life-jacket drill and I made a huge mental note of where those life-jackets were stored.

We were asked to put our bags into the tiny cabin and told that the best place to be was on the top deck. By now the boat was heading out of the harbour and there was just no going back. I did I was told and stored my bags and with the help of two kind gentlemen I managed to get myself up to the top deck. That was a mission in itself and there and then I decided that that is where I was going to stay the entire day...the fact that my other camera, lens and food were down below in the cabin was just too bad. It was still quite misty and rather chilly and a fair amount of spray was beginning to fall over the boat. Luckily I had a raincoat for my camera which I had stuffed into my jacket pocket. Soon the guides were calling out birds to us. I could barely see the birds never mind try to photograph them. And when I did maybe see a bird trying to photograph it was near impossible

We sailed past Cape Point just after 8.30 am.



As yet I still didn’t have decent photos and despaired that I ever would. Eventually I managed a photo of a Shy Albatross



It was still misty and the light was putrid and I was beginning to think that pelagic trips were a bit of a waste of time. I do think I was beginning to go into sulk mode.

Just before 10 am we picked up a fishing boat in the distance…and my thoughts on pelagic trips were about to change very rapidly.



To be continued

[Michele Nel]

Well there was bedlam in the sea and bedlam on the top deck…
There were birds bobbing up and down in the ocean and there were bodies swaying from side to side on the top deck. Why did I even imagine that when we found a fishing boat and slow down alongside all would be peaceful and calm and that would be my opportunity to go and get my other camera and lens and have it lying on the bench alongside me. Well hahahaha...joke of the century..trying to photograph these birds was actually quite hysterically funny. The boat sways and bobs and birds bob and fly and we all were bumping into each other…..”excuse me..I do apologise but I really didn’t mean to land in your lap like that” was the order of the day. In the beginning I just hung onto the railing with one hand and my camera with the other and was absolutely gobsmacked at the spectacle in front of me. I soon realised that that was not going to get me any photographs and eventually I got the hang of counting 1,2,3 ..let go railing, grab camera…. aim and fire…and then grab railing again. I had my 400mm lens on my camera so I am not really able to show you extent of all the birds out there but here are a few that I did manage…

3 different species with one shot…. Shy Albatross, White-chinned Petrel, Pintado Petrel



Great Shearwater



Wilson’s Storm-Petrel



And Black-browed Albatross

[Michele Nel]

The bobbing, swaying, bouncing and bumping…and excuse me’s continued. I found it quite difficult to keep track of what everybody was calling…I am not very good with starboard, port and lefts and rights. I felt I was missing everything. Then I heard a different name being called … Subantarctic Skua.” Where?”…. I asked. Above you..roar of laughter ……1,2,3…..aim and fire…



Got him…well who wouldn’t get this one..he was so darn close.
After a few minutes the initial frenzy calmed down a bit and I was able to gather my wits about me. I heard “Yellow-nosed Albatross” called a few times and I kept missing that one. Another new one I heard being called was Giant-Petrel….and I kept missing that one as well. But in the meantime I realised that Albatrosses take off very slowly and run across the ocean before managing to get airborne….so I concentrated on them for a little while.







Birds that I saw many of were White-chinned Petrels
 


And finally I got a Southern Giant–Petrel – albeit an out-of-focus one.



After a while we left that boat and continued on our journey.

[Lisbeth]

those birds were having a ball around the fishing boat.....and so did you, it seems

[Michele Nel]

We soon came across another little fishing boat



And again it was surrounded by many birds but we did not linger there for long it seems the Big Boys on board had got wind of a trawler and we trying to catch up to that….
And oh my word...we finally did and what a spectacle that was….the birds around this boat were absolutely phenomenal…..





There was huge excitement on the boat and again our guides were calling out left, right and centre and I kept missing left, right and centre. But eventually I managed to get an Atlantic Yello-nosed Albatross



And a Pintado Petrel



And great excitement when a Northern Royal Albatross was called…I got that as well….



And in between a few shots of the Cape Gannets





And more of the more common Albatrosses



And again more excitement when a Wandering Albatross was called….



And yes I was having the time of my life...:)

[Michele Nel]

Thank you again for all the lovely comments...
Dewi..you have some strange names for birds...

[Michele Nel]

Unfortunately all good things come to an end and we had to start heading back to shore.
I took a few more shots ……just to be on the safe side.

Black-browed Albatross



Shy Albatross



White-chinned Petrel



I was super excited when I spotted a Tern but so super unexcited when I couldn’t focus on it. Luckily the Tern hung around though and gave me a second chance…

Arctic Tern



We now faced a journey of at least 3 hrs back to shore. I had not moved from the top deck…and I had no intention of doing so. I likened our journey back to that of the long trip home from the Kgalagadi...where one sits and reflects on the awesome experience……so I just sat quietly with my thoughts…..:)
There were still many birds flying around but nowhere near as many as we had seen around the fishing boats . All of a sudden I heard one of the guides yell a word that I had been hoping to hear the entire trip and believe it or not it was not a bird but …dolphins. This had been very high up on my wish list . Most of the dolphins stayed quite a distance away from the boat but there are always the inquisitive few that had to come right up to the boat and underneath it. I tried my best to capture them but soon realised that I was fighting a losing battle …they were just too close for my 400mm. After taking the following few shots I just put down my camera and enjoyed the sighting. With that two dolphins came alongside the boat and jumped clean out of the water…everybody on the boat cheered. A sighting that will stay with me for a very long time.







And just like our trips to the Kgalagadi the ocean had saved a very special treat for last.
Soon we were sailing past Cape Point and Boulders …and yes there was one more tick waiting for me. A Bank Cormorant…..believe me there is a Bank Cormorant sitting on that rock..actually more than 1 !



We docked at 17h00...it had been a long but exhilarating day.
Now I am just waiting for September next year and “What would you like for your birthday, Dear ?”
Need you ask …I am so on the that boat again !!!!!

Bird list to follow.

[Michele Nel]

Thanks again for the great comments....and the Birthday wishes.
As promised the Birdlist...

Albatross, Atlantic Yellow-nosed
Albatross, Black-browed
Albatross, Northern Royal
Albatross, Shy
Albatross, Wandering
Cormorant, Bank
Cormorant, Cape
Cormorant, White-breasted
Darter, African
Gannet, Cape
Giant-Petrel, Southern
Gull, Kelp
Penguin, African
Petrel, Pintado
Petrel, White-chinned
Shearwater, Great
Shearwater, Sooty
Skua, Subantarctic
Storm-Petrel, Wilson's
Tern, Arctic
Tern, Common
Tern, Swift

22 different species - 9 of which were lifers which now brings my Lifelist to 568. My Southern Africa total is 453.
10 of these can be added to my Western Cape List which now totals 224. My target is 300. A way to go still. :)
11 can be added to my Birds Captured 2013 List. Birds Captured 2013 is a facebook group that I started in which the members see how many birds we can capture on camera from the 1 Jan -31 Dec 2013. My total is now 334.
10 can be added to my 400 photographic list..which now totals 401. I have finally reached that target.

We travelled 29 nautical miles from Cape Point, so about 55km or so...

The photography side of things was not easy. One minute you are photographing a dark bird and the next a white one...so one has to concentrate really hard on one's exposure. Nothing worse than having an over-exposed white bird. I used AV mode, F5.6 or F8 and quite a high ISO...mostly 400-640. I kept my eye on my blinkies on my screen ( Canon folk will know what I am on about) and used that as a judge to either under or over expose. I mostly overexposed for birds flying against the bright sky...more for the dark birds and a bit less for the white birds. The biggest problem was focussing....as you can imagine it is not easy to focus on your target from a rocking and rolling boat but not only that the camera also battles to auto focus because many times there was not enough contrast between bird and background. Manual focus was really too much for me to cope with......but all in all I am very happy with the photos that I did get but I do have to go back to sea to get decent Giant-Petrel and Sooty Shearwater photos.

Thank you to all that have read this TT....your wonderful comments, humour as well as all the awesome compliments make writing a trip report a worthwhile excercise....

[Michele Nel]

I kept my eye on my blinkies on my screen ( Canon folk will know what I am on about)

Ok, I'm Canon folk and I don't know what you're on about!! -O

Did you shoot in AI Focus or Servo?

Blinkies - Highlight Alerts. The over-exposed parts of your photo will blink..which Canon do you have ?
My camera has two focusing modes - One Shot and AI Servo. It is always set to AI Servo and I use the back-focus button. So I focus with my thumb and if I keep my thumb in and keep tracking my subject I am using AI Sevo mode. If I focus with thumb and then remove thumb once focus has been attained I then have one-shot focus which is what I use if bird/animal etc is not moving.