Hi All, first of all, I too would like to farewell Bill Wakefield and
offer my commiserations to his family. I never personally met Bill but
knew all about his efforts with pelagic organizing and know all to well
the hard work involved and how frustrating it can be sometimes but it
does have it's rewards. Below is the trip report for last Saturday from
Southport.
Location: Southport, Queensland.
Date: 20/8/2011
Vessel: 37 ft Steber monohull, M.V. Grinner
Crew: Craig Newton (skipper)
Pax: Paul Walbridge (leader & organizer), Robert Morris, Glen Pacey,
Brian Russell, Kevin Delahoy, Brendan Cook, Heyn de Kock, David Stewart,
Andrew Walter, Chris Wiley, Jacqui Brumm, Gaby Vinklarik, Dick
Andersson, Stephanie Ford, Roger Ford.
Weather conditions: A high over southern Australia extended a
strengthening ridge into Queensland, this combined with a low developing
off the coast of NSW brought increasing SW-SE winds onto the south
Queensland coastline. On leaving the Seaway, light SW winds which
gradually increased as the wind shifted more to the south then
south-east. By mid morning wind had reached a good 20 knots, increasing
to 30 knots by midday. Light to moderate cloud cover during the earlier
part of the day with intermittent sunny spells, with the southerly
change coming through cloud increasing by mid afternoon with increasing
rain squalls. Visibility good, maximum air temperature, 20* barometric
pressure, 1016 hPa.
Sea conditions: Light seas on a moderate swell on leaving the Seaway,
increasing on crossing the Shelf and by the Shelf-break conditions had
really deteriorated. By midday, with the increasing wind, combined with
the EAC current running at 1.5 knots causing seas to 1.5 metres on swell
sets up to 3+ metres. Sea-surface temps. 18.2* C inshore, rising to 19.6*
C halfway across the Shelf with a maximum of 21.8* C at the widest drift
point.
Summary:
Left the Seaway 30 mins earlier than originally planned in order to try
and beat the forecasted deteriorating weather. Originally planned to
reach the Riviera grounds 28 nautical miles ENE of Southport but with
the conditions not looking to get any better, decided to call the final
drift at the Shelf-break some 22 nautical miles ENE of Southport.
Reached the Shelf-break at 0900 hrs and continued to drift SE until 1130
hrs when with the worsening conditions decided to head for home. Arrived
back at the Seaway at 1430 hrs, total duration of trip, 8 hrs.
Just after leaving the Seaway we encountered the first of two returning
trawlers, this one having a good number of birds around it, mainly
Silver Gulls with just a few Crested Terns but also a large number of
the first returning Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. Shortly after a second
trawler was encountered but had already cleaned up so there was little
around it. We headed on out towards the Shelf-break with just a few
Australasian Gannets, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters but also the first of a
small northward movement of Hutton*s Shearwaters which went day long.
On reaching the drift point at 0900 hrs. a solitary Providence Petrel
and Wilson*s Storm Petrel immediately came to the vessel to feed and
these were soon joined by Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and one or two
Hutton*s Shearwaters. The numbers of Providence Petrels started to
swell and at 0945 hrs the first albatross of the day, a juvenile Shy
type Albatross arrived and spent the next few minutes cautiously
circling the vessel, this was ultimately identified as a fresh plumaged
juvenile New Zealand White-capped Albatross Thalassarche cauta steadi.
The predominant Providence Petrels had now been largely replaced by
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters which flocked to the now substantial slick. At
1025 hrs an adult Yellow-nosed Albatross arrived at the back of the
vessel, which prompted the White-capped Albatross to finally join in and
come in close to feed and be photographed, Shy & White-capped Albatross
are not a common sight in SEQ waters.
The first of several Black-bellied Storm-Petrels arrive at the stern at
the same time as the Yellow-nosed Albatross and more Wilson*s
Storm-Petrels began to appear. The numbers of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters &
Providence Petrels were still being replenished but nothing else much
was arriving until 1055 hrs when a juvenile Black-browed Albatross
joined the still present White-capped & Yellow-nosed Albatrosses. By now
conditions had deteriorated somewhat, to the extent that sheets of water
had begun to crash across the well-deck of the vessel, drenching
everyone outside the cabin, so at 1130 hrs it was decided to head for
home. The conditions made viewing difficult on the return trip back and
just a few more Hutton*s Shearwaters were noted. Due the skipper
Craigs* boating skills, no one was noted to be physically ill,
remarkable, taking into account the conditions and the fact that a few
were first timers.
Species
Wilson*s Storm -Petrel * 7 (3)
Black-bellied Storm-Petrel * 5 (2)
Black-browed Albatross * 1
New Zealand White-capped Albatross * 1
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross * 1
Wedge-tailed Shearwater * 294 (150)
Hutton*s Shearwater * 21 (5)
Providence Petrel * 43 (20)
Australasian Gannet * 8 (3)
Crested Tern * 11 (6)
Silver Gull * 49 (35)
Next trip is on 17th September with several spaces still available.
I'm heading out west for a couple of weeks on Friday but someone at work
will be accessing my e-mail and you can book on
Cheers - Paul W.
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