Danzenbaker Tour Journal: Homeward Bound

January 22: Day 1 on the Drake Passage

A fairly slow day today.  In my experience the Drake Passage is never loaded with birds.  Today was no exception. Southern Giant-Petrels patrolled behind the ship all morning and Gail Cheeseman saw a Light-mantled Sooty Albatross just before we entered a pesky fog bank that cut visibility for a while.  Since there were few birds to watch, we were able to give our full attention to Doug Cheeseman,  Ted Cheeseman, Hugh Rose, and Patrick Endres, who all gave excellent presentations. I updated my program on birding in Panama, which I would present later in the day.

The soft, velvety look of Light-mantled Sooty Albatross makes it one of the world's most beautiful seabirds.

My day was marked by, horror of horrors, a crashed computer drive! Needless to say, this provided just a tad more than a minor distraction for the remainder of the day. From the afternoon on into the evening hours, the seas kept building. By 9pm we were watching water occasionally pouring over the bow. Getting to sleep was accompanied by the additional challenge of figuring out how to avoid getting rolled out of bed.

Photo by Jim Danzenbaker