had another day which was one of those that will stay with me forever – I can still see it clearly now if I close my eyes. I sailed very close by Campbell Island, which is three hundred and fifty miles from New Zealand. I would think that the island and it’s outlying rocks form the last part of the cone of a volcano; the rocks around rise up vertically like tombstones from the sea, I was five miles away but I would say they were a great deal bigger than the Needles, and much more slab sided. Above about one hundred metres everything was completely blanketed by a thick layer of cloud, but it was spectacular and moody non the less, and the first land I had seen since Madeira, but the best part was the albatross. As I bashed upwind past the island in short, shallow seas, there were dozens and dozens of them, in fact just by looking behind (it was too wet to look forward!) I counted nearly forty, and if you consider the number in front and those lost behind waves, there were probably a hundred within my five mile range of visibility, and some of each one of all the species I have seen so far. Do you know, apparently for a long time sailors thought that they had no legs or feet and never landed, and sure enough their feet are difficult to spot, but occasionally they must get stiff or something and so they dangle them down and shake them so they look like they are made of jelly, then they put them away again! It is really quite funny. I have also seen one take off from the water – it requires timing and the help of a few handy waves. It is not the most fitting of manoeuvres for such a graceful bird, but he quickly recovered and tucked his rubber feet away, climbed, banked and turned back over the boat at speed as if to say “See, I can fly in a proper fashion!”
