At dawn we were sailing still fifty miles offshore eight hours distant from our next anchorage. It was a slated-monochromatic first light. On wing skimming the sea I recognized the tell-tale shape of an albatross. They are swift flyers with slender boomerang shaped wings, the diagnostic forward leaning shoulder accents their shape at midspan. It was on these long wings that a sailor’s companion was sighted.
Below decks the other crewman was asleep snug with a lee clothe securing him to his bunk. One man stands watch while the other relieved of their duty sleeps resting to be ready to stand their watch drinking coffee bright eyed and vigilant.
A curious albatross and I had the ocean to ourselves. There was this chance encounter to share being out here together, secure in the cockpit I stood awake in my solitude with a bird perfectly content to a life here on the Pacific alone.
Soaring above the swells careening from one side of the boat’s stern to the other the white, gray and black colored bird’s wingtips not one inch above the waves soared in one direction then sweeping back to the other; a tasty treat would soon meet a beak piercing its life’s end by sudden surprise. Now and again the albatross would land on the sea to pluck a bite from the water. With wings folded you could mistake the expert flyer for a gull but once airborne its silhouette is unmistakable.
Rocking on wings that may span eight feet in length the albatross has a slightly narrower width of wing than does a condor. Such skilled maneuvering, the stylish turns carved from the air is the rarest chance to see this expert pelagic aviator’s aerobatic flight.
The more abundant shearwaters out here are adept on wing too, but it is this solo albatross, this rare encounter, this bird that goes from breeding grounds in Hawaii out into the Pacific where it hunts for month upon month of near constant flight. I have spotted this bird only two times in my whole near five decade sailing life.
On Oahu you’ll find a breeding colony on the islands northwest corner. A mere 99% of all the birds breed here. Courting albatross can be found here with a possible nesting site on Guadalupe Island hear where our boats course passed may have produced this individual.
Behaviorists have catalogued two dozen moves the birds display while enticing their partner into breeding fun. We would do well to mimic what the amorous birds have found in the ritual of their avian quest to make a happy nesting home. All this cooing, cuddling and nuzzling can only be all to the good, some parts of our two kinds do parallel our different species amorous behaviors. What is worthy of our consideration— how Cupid’s winged love has formed such a common bond with albatross nature— once breeding has proven agreeable the pair remain devoted to the other for the length of their lives. They enjoy a long lifespan.
After fledging and feeding the adolescent albatross take to sea and glide for months and months wandering the Pacific in every direction north and south, east and west to feed and wander. Like all the others from their colony one day they will find their way back to breed with a new adorable lifelong partner of their own. One can only imagine how an eye catching shapely new mate can unlock the albatross’s devotion with its own unique unending fire.
On our passage north I’ve spotted humpbacks, porpoise and marlin. I have seen dorado as long and as big as the tallest tale, big enough to boast being— the famous one that got away. Sharing dawn with the Laysan albatross off Cedros Island, now there is a yarn worthy of spinning about one of the great winged legends of the seven seas—
