Hi all,
After much discussion with various birders and the skipper of our Albany boat, 
I've organised a weekend of deep ocean pelagics off Albany, scheduled for the 
23rd and 24th May this year. These trips will start early and head further 
offshore than the usual trips, hoping to find some of the deeper ocean 
albatross and petrel species. The trips will be a little more expensive than 
the standard Albany trips due to increased  fuel costs -  the cost with a full 
boat of 18 will be $180/person/trip, increasing if we don't fill the boat (e.g. 
to $200 if we only have 16 on board).  The other trade-off is that the weather 
cut-off is likely to be slightly lower  than usual as we are heading further 
from land.
The plan will be to leave early (approx  0500) to accommodate the extra travel 
time while still allowing several hours for chumming once we get out there. 
Assuming we get out on both days, on the Saturday I plan to head  straight out 
for the 3000m mark on the first day, and possibly target any  intrusions of 
cold water if there are any in the vicinity.  This will probably add 1-1.5hrs 
travel time each way. On the Sunday, the plan is to investigate a couple of 
seamounts (I think in c. 2000m). The exact details may change, but the overall 
plan will be to go deep! If  these trips are worthwhile, I will try to run them 
at a few different times of  year over the next few years, complementing the 
standard trips.
If you would like to book a place for one or both days, please let me know. As 
always, we need minimum numbers for these trips to run.
Cheers,
John 
                                          
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