Heading offshore

The morning began down at the tiny harbour, where Shoshanah and I introduced ourselves to the crew from Akura fishing charters. We had managed to get places as spectators aboard the boat, taking seven keen fisherpeople as well as ourselves (who still thought tuna came from tins). The rain of the previous day had passed, leaving dark clouds and choppy seas. Staving off seasickness, our eyes were drawn to the water and we quickly ticked off Brown Noddy and White Tern working in a mixed feeding flock on either side of the boat. As we chugged further out, my eyes became glued to the horizon to ward off encroaching nausea, and we soon had cause to be excited. "Red-Footed Booby!" I called out as a small group flew alongside is and over the boat. While those who were here to fish became ever more frustrated by the absence of bites, I was enthralled as a dark-morph Herald Petrel cruised past the back of the boat. Lifer! It wheeled among the noddies for a while, then disappeared - replaced by another later on. Funnily enough, water and Sealegs were far inferior motion sickness remedies compared to seeing new birds. The queasiness went right away! A brief flash of white caught my eye - a Tropical Shearwater! An hour or so later, when all was quiet, another one flew past only metres from our faces, providing jaw-dropping views of another new bird! Despite the two lifers, we yearned for solid ground again. Oddly (or not), the lunch provided was left entirely untouched by all on board..