Attack of the Birds

We left Japan and sailed toward Russia. Sometime around 3 AM we heard a terrible clatter coming from the veranda. At first I thought it was a neighbor outside moving furniture. Loudly! But Kathy got up to look out. There were birds everywhere. She said hundreds. The stories around the ship kept being embellished for days. The first story was the Russians trained these birds to attack to cause the ship to turn around. Later there were some birds out in the water swimming around. They were having a wake in memory of their falling comrades.

Anyhow we learned they were some sort of “shearwater” birds. When they hit the decks (and I mean many of the decks) they either died from the crash or were stuck because they can’t take off and fly except from the water. So one of our friends took photos in the morning. Notice the mess on the deck. Ours was just as bad.