Day 8 G’ Day Mate! (Written on Jan 26, 2013)
“G’ day mate!” I greeted the wheelhouse gang as I enter in my Australian flag printed singlet. Paper cups, serviettes and Australian flag tattoos lift the ship’s patriotic spirits and as the morning progresses the sun bursts through and it feels as though we are on a Caribbean cruise. Pretty white cumulus decorates the bluer-than-blue sky and warm sun encourages jackets and hats to be discarded in piles around the observers.
Sam breaks out some lovely tunes on his ukulele entertaining the observers on the fly-bridge and the Portuguese bridge with a Sam’s-own-Australia-Day-medley including multiple renditions of “Waltzing Matilda”, “I come from a land down-under”, “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree” and “I’m a believer”. Temporary tattoos appear on cheeks and grinning Aussie girls cover the decks!
Lunch is served at 12 noon as usual, and today we celebrate our international heritage in Australia with European salami and cheese, English ham, English garden salad, Asian rice dishes, tropical Queensland pineapple and American carrot & walnut cake. Scurrying to the wheelhouse for my 12 noon to 3 pm usual watch, the seas are now a silken deep blue-green and overhead the 50% cloud presents visible patches of gorgeous blue sky. The wind is light, only 7-8 knots from the N, and with a <2 metre SW swell, it is a perfect day for spotting whales.
Earlier this morning when the wind was 12-15 knots from the NNW, many albatross soared around us – including a new species for this journey the Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, with photos of course! These are my favourite albatross and appear mocha-coloured, reminding me of the delicious mix of coffee and chocolate.
Yesterday we reached the half-way mark of our journey, today is Australia Day and on the January 30, Skipper will turn 7. All these shipboard celebrations!
In the mid-day monitoring we have some blue whale rumbles, but sadly no sightings. It is a lovely afternoon – our ship is now quiet compared to the raucous singing and laughing of the morning. At 1400 clouds gather at the horizon and above these, the clear blue sky reflects in the blue-than-yesterday-green Southern Ocean.
Up the foremast I scale with treasured camera in hand, looking for blues but getting distracted by the eye-level albatross circling, three Yellow-nosed, one Shy, one Wandering and one Black-browed Albatrosses all at once. Late afternoon sun glowing on the underwing is beautiful and the yellow and pink beaks are gorgeous. The almost diamond-shaped body of the Wandering visible from afar, shows the smaller albatross how gliding should be done. A NZ fur seal laying at the surface and craning its’ neck to see what we are looks amazing in the blue-green water.
Skipper is excitable today, the air is warm, the decks are walkable and wind not so chilly – just a good all round day for barking at something that will come along! Blue whales calls and tones are at 70 Hz and Southern right whales blast at 25 Hz, but they elude us despite good sighting conditions. A rain shower on our port aft quarter brings us inside the wheelhouse in the mid-afternoon, but we do get to travel through a rainbow! Will there be a golden whale at the end? Cloud returns with layer upon layer of cotton-wool cumulus, the closer cloud is dark and stormy-looking and the layers beyond are shades of grey and yellow-cream. The chill towards 1800 or 6pm arrives with moist cool air as sunset approaches…
Australiana is the flavour of the day and as we drop the oceanographic CTD (Conductivity/Depth/Temperature) instrument for the eighth station in the STC, we continue to look for whales in the calm seas and interesting evening light with wafts of burgers and sausages coming up from the bbq. The sunset tonight is among the most amazing we have experienced. The heavy cloud layers begin to reflect the golden light of the sun approaching the horizon and this reflected on the water in front of Whale Song. It was as if we were travelling through an ocean of tomato soup! With disbelief, I took lots of photos – totally blown away by this natural spectacle.
During dinner over hamburgers, chicken and macaroni salad, sausages wrapped in bread and hot fried chips we discussed all the things that we love about being Australian. Themes that surfaced were mateship, particularly in time of disaster that strangers help others, car drivers’ whom wave to each other in the country, unknown people calling each other mate, our national biscuit Tim Tams, tasty bbq lamb chops, subtle and not so subtle sarcasm, another chance of a holiday and watching our politicians argue… To cap off the Australiana feel, the crew watches the movie classic “The Castle”, loving the serenity, the vibe and the concept that a home is a man’s castle!
Written from 39 16.2 S and 137 48.0 E, directly South of Kangaroo Island in a glassy calm, moonlit sea,
Hooroo, Mich
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