More cetacean life from the Drake Passage. At times pods of dolphin could be seen cavorting with joyful playfulness as they body surfed off our bow wave. After many failures with focus and settings, I finally got it right and managed to capture a full frame image of a Peale’s dolphin (all two metres of him!) completely suspended in flight. Magic!!
It’s never Christmas in my world until I have heard this song at least once of a young Montreal boy eagerly contemplating the rapid approach of Christmas back in the 1960s. Now a Quebec classic.
“Parce que je voulais me faire passer pour Doug Harvey“
The Doug Harvey mentioned in the song was one of the most legendary players to have ever played the blue line back in the heyday of the NHL’s original six. The idol of many a young Canadien’s fan growing up back then. Addicted to booze from his early days in the Canadian navy during the war, towards the end of his life he was the security guard at the local race track and living in a railway caboose. All his Stanley Cup memorabilia sold off. Sad.
On se reverra le 7 Janvier!!
Or how the early bird gets the worm! As we approach the Antarctic, both ice and cetaceans start to make an appearance in the old whaling waters of the Drake Passage. Early one morning I stood alone on the bow of the Ocean Endeavour and was rewarded with the capture of the following images. In our entire trip, I don’t think any one had a better whale encounter. Lucky me!!
(Click and reclick for full screen enlargement)
Near collision between ship and whale allows me to shoot a full frame image of this behemoth from the ship’s bow with a landscape lens!! Seemingly tempting me to jump overboard and ride it bareback Slim Pickens style down to shake hands with Captain Ahab in Davy Jones’ locker! (As an open water scuba diver in Asian and Australian waters, I’ve knocked on his door a couple of near fatal times. Fortunately he didn’t let me in!)
Riding whales bare back (almost as much fun as hunting submarines in the North Atlantic!). Where would I get that idea. Oh yeah. Kenai Fjord, Alaska! Killer!!
A Sea Lion pod spices up our journey across the Drake Strait.
(click to enlarge views)
Do a double click on the head of the male. He seems a little pissed with our presence!
This bird of the southern ocean is as graceful as it is handsome. Often seen trailing our ship. Click twice for full view
(click and reclick in sequence on image to enlarge to full screen view)
(Houston, we have lift off!)
Penguins compress air trapped inside the feathers of their flippers and body to become quite literally “jet propelled” when popping out of the water and leaving a trail of rocket bubbles in the water behind.
(Click (and sometimes reclick)) to expand any point in these images to enlarge)
(Click and reclick to enlarge)
Hint (Click (and reclick) the image)
(Modern version. Or how I made friends with albatross. Don’t forget to click on images for a full screen view!)
One of the objectives of my recent southern peregination was to photograph as much of the abundant wildlife as possible. This meant many a lonely hour on the extreme stern of the good ship, the Ocean Endeavour, looking at the seabirds gliding back and forth searching for chopped up seafood in the wake of our propellers. Watching in amazement as albatross would glide silent and motionless above me. So close at times that I could almost touch their extended wing tips in the stone cold silence. Staring at each other in a dumbfounding wonderous amazement. Each asking of the other the age old question. “What the hell are you doing here??“
To say the least a humbling experience! Staring at the dark, tumultuous waters of the Drake Strait twenty feet directly below me and contemplating the fact that 400 years ago the old time sailor men (wooden ships and men of steel!) plyed this treacherous passage in diminutive wooden ships with canvas sail. A half world away from their native country. What did they think of their strange wildlife encounters?
THE LIGHT MANTLE ALBATROSS
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1772-1834
How a Ship having passed the Line (equator) was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.
And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o’ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.
With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
Iceberg three times the height of Notre Dame cathedral!
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.
It ate the food it ne’er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
Good work Jeff!!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner’s hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.’
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look’st thou so?’—With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.
My new friend, the Light Mantle Alabatross, Drake Strait, Southern Ocean
(Not shot with a cross-bow…. but with a Nikon Z9 camera from a distance of 10 feet. Could a Disney cartoonist design a friendlier face?). Two other albatross species were seen in abundance but they were a little more camera shy. I doubt that the Ancient Mariner could have hit them with a crossbow. Click and reclick to enlarge the view).
LUCKY ME!
Here I am standing on my seventh continent (with a few big islands such as Greenland, Ellesmere, and Baffin thrown in between for good measure!). Proudly sporting my old Canadian Forces Station Alert touque!! I’m now a veteran of both polar regions!! Can’t believe my luck!
Just got back from a two week trip to Patagonia and Antarctica. Stay tuned. More images from the trip of a lifetime to follow.
