Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sea life

Hi all,
Well you learn something new everyday, Friday was a complete midnight-day-midnight without wind, it left the sea glass like, but the long swell was still there, I was just pottering around the deck, adjusting this and that and kept seeing these blobs that from a distance looked like junk or deflated footballs floating about, I saw lots during the day maybe 50 to 80, so when I got bored with going nowhere I started the little green monster and went over to 'looky see' what they were. As I got closer the blob started to resolve into something, a dead sea turtle! floating very high out of the water its back very dry and salt encrusted in the searing sunlight, it seemed to have lost its flippers and its head and there were 3 others very close by in the same condition, Imagine my suprise then, when suddenly its haed and flippers popped out he poked his head above water, looked at me and then dived down deep, I could see him for a long time swimming down! I didnt know turtles sleep on the surface like that, they must be able to fill an airsack to float so high, never seen it on the telly either. The other life at sea I've never seen before was a little long legged bird with webbed feet, not much bigger than a sparrow, flying but walking on the water at the same time dipping its beak into the water with every beat and step ??? I looked at the suface to see what on earth it was eating, it was some sort of flying insect (like a mayfly with 4 wings) that had drowned, there were thousands of them over a big area, the bird I have no idea what it was. Next was the Dolphins, 4 of those I have good picies too, hope someone knows the type as again not seen them before, similar to a common dolphin but a 6" spotted stripe down each side ??
More later
Roy
Position: 29,59.2N , 14,40.7W
Speed: 5 knots, Course: 99 deg.
Local Time: 19. September 2009 20:58