At Sea in the Sargasso Sea
Watching flying fish during a day at sea is a lot like flying a kite with your best friend back during your childhood. It’s just as much fun and you have lots of time to do it. The more wind you find, the longer they both fly and the higher they both tend to soar. So since there aren’t a lot of birds around today, (a few Cory’s shearwaters flew by, however, as we were watching a pod of Risso’s dolphins) we are perfectly happy watching flying fish.
I wonder what they must think as the National Geographic Endeavour comes by. “That’s one big predatory tuna,” they must say to one another. “I’m gettin outta here.” And up they leap, out of the clear blue water gliding over the waves and turning just a little overall during the “flight” so as to avoid ending up hitting the water in a straight line and possibly in the mouth of another bigger fish. Seems crazy, but it works; otherwise they’d just stay underwater.
Sometimes they land on the deck of the ship, and unfortunately the fish in today’s photo met with essentially the same fate as many a kite; at least like a lot of the crazy kites I flew as a kid. Tonight it flew just a little too high and made just a little bit of a wrong turn. This little guy (or girl) landed all the way up on the bridge wing!
So as I am telling this story up in the lounge, one guest just commented, “Well, I guess there are no pelagic owls out here.” “No,” I said, “I think predatory tuna have the market on flying fish.” Get it? The “market.”
That’s humor at sea for you.
Watching flying fish during a day at sea is a lot like flying a kite with your best friend back during your childhood. It’s just as much fun and you have lots of time to do it. The more wind you find, the longer they both fly and the higher they both tend to soar. So since there aren’t a lot of birds around today, (a few Cory’s shearwaters flew by, however, as we were watching a pod of Risso’s dolphins) we are perfectly happy watching flying fish.
I wonder what they must think as the National Geographic Endeavour comes by. “That’s one big predatory tuna,” they must say to one another. “I’m gettin outta here.” And up they leap, out of the clear blue water gliding over the waves and turning just a little overall during the “flight” so as to avoid ending up hitting the water in a straight line and possibly in the mouth of another bigger fish. Seems crazy, but it works; otherwise they’d just stay underwater.
Sometimes they land on the deck of the ship, and unfortunately the fish in today’s photo met with essentially the same fate as many a kite; at least like a lot of the crazy kites I flew as a kid. Tonight it flew just a little too high and made just a little bit of a wrong turn. This little guy (or girl) landed all the way up on the bridge wing!
So as I am telling this story up in the lounge, one guest just commented, “Well, I guess there are no pelagic owls out here.” “No,” I said, “I think predatory tuna have the market on flying fish.” Get it? The “market.”
That’s humor at sea for you.
