An
Afternoon at Sea – 9 February 2006
Bill
Rogers
On Thursday, February 9th, eight stalwarts of the TATC
Tuesday Group spent the afternoon at sea.
=Twas a beautiful winter day, a few clouds, a light breeze,
401, and a snow flurry
or two as I drove to
One of the schoolgirls became very excited when she spied a boat in the marina with a Reidsville nameplate. Evidently their town has a small grocery store and not much else. In the harbor and near shore we saw cormorants, brown pelicans, a few mallards, and gulls.
At one point there was a bit of excitement on the trip out
when the boat slowed to a crawl. But
the captain had not seen whales, he had spotted floating debris he did not want
to hit. Offshore there were several
hundred gannets, most were resting, a few flying, but none doing their
beautiful aerial diving for food. And it
was to the gannet flock that we headed, the captain hoping that if there were
birds there were fish, and if there were fish there might be whales. This spot was several miles offshore, about
even with
With so few occupants, we wandered the boat at will, but
stayed mostly on the warmer, sunny side.
Going out, and during the search near the gannets, it was nice. Coming back, into the wind, was a tad
chill. Dressed for the occasion we were
OK, tho feet were a bit cool. During the trip, a
I went inside on the way back to warm up a bit, but a lady there had not been well and the smell put me back outdoors. I should have added another layer from my daypack, but did not. Still, it was good to have the extras along, including heavier gloves, ear muffs, a warmer cap, and a vest. Bottlenose dolphins are all south for the winter. We saw neither harbor porpoises nor seals, and no whales. The boat did toss, turn, and twist a bit, but not badly. Some of the folks were bundled so well all you could see of them were their eyes. But the afternoon was a fine one and, to me, worth the $25 for the 2 1/2-hr float.
P.S. We also did not see any polar bears.