Canyon to Canyon Day 7 (Jan 11, 2016)
After such a busy day until well after dinner yesterday, I had my work cut out downloading three cards, selecting, resizing images then completing the daily choice and finishing my accompanying words. But of course, I absolutely love doing this, this is all fun of the highest order! Photographs and whales! What a day, sharks, squid and pilot whales – yahoo!
Calm Sea. Absolutely perfect sighting conditions.
No biologics were detected on the towed array all through the wee hours of the morning but there is always a lot to do. Between checking the acoustics, checking the radars, adjusting our course, doing the weather report for the BOM and the ships’ daily mile calculations (which Dale did beautifully and I am now following his good example) – the time just flies! You know what they say when time flies… and hence, I must be having fun! And indeed, this is my definition of fun. At 230am we are 115 nm southeast of Israelite Bay and have now begun the real transit across the GAB with 3D 6H (3 days 6 hours) to go before arrival at Port Lincoln. What will we see the rest of the journey?
Skipper of the Skupper. Always helping with the observations.
Throughout the morning and all of the afternoon, the sea is gorgeously calm and glassy. Wavelets appear at our amidships and stern wash folding into soft peaks like beaten egg whites ready for meringue keep me entertained at the gun’whale.
The towed array is quiet and in fact only a couple of squeaks were detected all day. The calm conditions were enticing and make us want sightings, but reports from colleagues indicate we may be waiting until the eastern side of the GAB before we encounter more cetaceans. Of course, we will still look and listen all the way! The chance keeps us engaged and entertained.
Cowabunga! Surfable wave for a copepod!
By mid-afternoon the anemometer hovers between 2.1 and 3.2 knots. This is heavenly. With a gentle puff from the southeast and a northerly set current, a wrinkled texture ruffles the water surface but it’s very, very glassy. A long period swell from the southeast gently rises and lowers us every 9 or 10 seconds. Pasley Canyon was crossed during the morning and now Dover Canyon, sadly without cetaceans. In the reflective water, Portuguese-man-of-war bobbed at the surface. Now we really know we must not fall in the water here! If the sharks don’t get you, the jellyfish will!
Sunset at Sea. No more to say.
Vapour trails from a Qantas jet left lines overhead for more than an hour and an angular steamy “separation” across the sky above the sunset, was a reminder of the ambient moisture content, as shown with the 98% humidity recorded at the 2 o’clock weather report.
Luckily, we have had another wonderful day on the briny. We feel fortunate and will not waste a moment.
Keep safe,
Mich
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