A Voyage of Exploration Around the World - Leg 6: Mauritius-Cape Town

Team Mauritius to Cape Town - Left to Right, Brian Tollitt, Paul Hill, Anno Brandreth and Martin Kitching

23rd and 24th March – Mauritius and Reunion Island

23rd March was a full team change over with Anno, Brian, Martin, and Paul joining the Bolette.  The 23rd was a day at anchor in Port Louis; the day ending watching Mauritius Fruit Bats depart their daytime roosts as Bolette prepared for her evening sail-away. An early morning arrival on the 24th at Reunion was dry and sunnry when we arrived but was replaced with tropical rain which was initially falling on higher ground but later enveloped the coast where sediment and litter strewn streams mixed with the sea water and cliff set waterfalls cascaded down the steep rocky island side.  The evening departure was immediately into intense warm wet downpours and electric storms which unfortunately limited viewing options and foreshortened the day length but not before, and in not much time at all, good numbers and a variety of seabirds were seen including over 100 of each Baillon’s Shearwater and Wedge-tailed Shearwater, 30 Barau’s Petrel and two dolphin sized Albacore Tuna.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater © Paul Hill/OWE

Baillon's Shearwater ©Paul Hill / OWE

25th to 29th March at Sea to Gqeberha

The first proper sea day on this leg of the journey, a warm gentle breeze, moderate sea state, a 2-metre swell and a civilised sunrise at 0637. Flyingfish were abundant as were smaller numbers of Flying Squid and small numbers of cetaceans including two Bryde’s Whale and five Pantropical Spotted Dolphin.

Pantropical Spotted Dolphin © Martin Kitching / OWE

The 26th dawned 55 miles east of Madagascar heading westward across the deep-water Madagascar basin. Sea and air temperatures were almost equivalent at 27° Celsius. Small numbers of Spinner and Striped Dolphin were seen throughout the day and, to the delight of a fortunate few, four Pygmy Killer Whale, including a calf, came tight in to the port-side bow late on in the day.

Pygmy Killer Whale © Martin Kitching / OWE

The 27th March, started 255 nautical miles east of Durban, South Africa with a sea depth of 5000m and became a weather-day of 2 halves. The early morning sunrise was a corker with calming silky pastel shades where the sky and sea seamlessly blended together allowing superb viewing conditions. It was easy to spot surfacing cetaceans at distance but although we saw seven Beaked Whales, in three groups, it wasn’t possible to identify them to species unlike the splashy 30 or so Striped Dolphin. 100 Sooty Tern and 10 Brown Noddy represented a short cast of seabirds before suddenly, late morning, the placid conditions were instantly ended as the ship sailed into the defined edge of a spectacular electric squall which, once started, enveloped Bolette for the rest of the day curtailing observation opportunities.

The 28th March dawned towards the western end of the Indian Ocean and above the Mozambique Plateau and the influence of the 60km wide southerly and fast flowing Agulhas current. Wildlife highlights included Bottlenose Dolphin, Pantropical Spotted Dolphin, 50+ Soft-plumaged Petrel, and 30 Great -winged petrel. In another, brief but sharp thunderstorm, a Sanderling and a Temminck’s Stint briefly looked to find refuge on the ship but thought better of it and continued their journeys from and to who knows where. Amazing that such small birds can be so far out from land where there are absolutely no visual land references, just apparently feature-less sea and sky. The miracle of migrants - astounding and amazing to be able to orientate and commute tens of thousands of miles from the Arctic summer, cross the equator and be equally capable in the warmer Tropics for the northern winter.

Soft-plumaged Petrel © Paul Hill / OWE

Great-winged Petrel © Martin Kitching / OWE

29th March Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth)

An early misty arrival to Gqeberha enabled the OWE team opportunity to meet a pre-arranged guide and head for Addo Elephant National Park for a wonderful day trip.

30th March – At Sea to Cape Town

The journey west around the south of Africa and away from the Agulhas current into more mixed waters and more varied seabed topography included very different avifauna to previous days and included 150+ Shy Albatross, 400+ Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, 200+ White-chinned Petrel, 500+ Cape Gannet, 10 Brown Skua  and a couple of Soft-plumaged Petrel. Small numbers of Pantropical Spotted, Striped and Common Dolphin were the preamble to a lone male Killer Whale.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross © Paul Hill / OWE

Shy Albatross © Paul Hill / OWE

White-chinned Petrel © Paul Hill / OWE

Cape Gannet © Paul Hill / OWE

With a couple of nights moored in Cape Town, the OWE were to spend three days birding around the Cape.