I’ve wanted to see an albatross since we read The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere by Samuel Taylor Coleridge back in school.
I’ve seen them on nature programs but all it did was sharpen my desire to see them in their natural habitat at the bottom of the world.
Listen, Stranger! Mist and Snow,
And it grew wond'rous cauld:
And Ice mast-high came floating by
As green as Emerauld.
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the Fog it came;
And an it were a Christian Soul,
We hail'd it in God's name.
It wasn't quite the land of mist and snow, but it was a few hours away from Cape Horn when they joined us and it was cold and misty. That's good enough for me.
We saw several varieties of the bird and we had them around for several days during the cruise. We watched them glide along the surface of the water and occasionally go through a swell and come out the other side of it seemingly unaffected.
It was a great joy to have these seabirds accompany us on our journey.
... italicized material from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
