Late August and early September saw me on the Godetia, owned by Irvin and Johnson: a 56-metre wet-fish trawler.
The objective of this cruise was to compare how seabirds interacted with and without flying a tori line whilst offal was discarded.
The number of different types of birds around was low, but an old friend of mine, the wandering albatross, turned up towards the end of the cruise.
The tori line proved to be very effective. Hardly any birds were killed when the vessel retained all the leftover offal which would be used for fishmeal later.
Sitting at the stern on the gantry or 'catwalk' offers great views of the birds and we had several days of Force 6 and 7 winds with winds gusting Force 8 one afternoon.
That afternoon, feeling a little exposed, I climbed down and headed for a hot coffee. Not long after, I was in 96km/h winds outside Van Reenen, a village in northern Natal. I saw a first for me, a bird called a yellow-chested pipit - what we in the birding world call a 'lifer'!
The reason we were inland was to attend our annual staff meeting held at a hotel formerly commandeered by the British during the Anglo-Boer war. I gave a presentation on my trawl work and 'networked' round the pool table and dart board. The war may well have long been over, but peace was broken that September weekend!