Day 11 (Monday, June 23) by Mike

Sailing with Dummies (Hawaii to Alaska Edition)

This morning and afternoon we met with several different people from the island. All of them are extremely nice and have been very helpful. Before, in between, and after meetings we explored more of the island. There’s a really nice beach by the cafeteria. I used it today to do some deep thinking.

There are somewhere around 400,000 baby albatross chicks on the island right now. They have about a five-foot wingspan. These chicks are everywhere.

There are a few adult birds feeding them occasionally, but the chicks just sit and stand around, rarely moving. They don’t move for people, bikes, vehicles, or much of anything. Occasionally they stretch their wings.

Sometime between now and August about 300,000 of them will successfully fly away. That means about 100,000 of them will die in the next 5-6 weeks. That’s a few thousand dead birds each day. There are lots of dead birds on the ground (they smell bad). They basically die from starvation or thirst. The only food they get now is whatever their parents regurgitate to them.

Daily Cuisine:

We were regulars at the cafeteria today. It was a nice change.

Fishing Report:

Fishing is still not allowed in this national monument.

Arts and Entertainment:

Josh, Bob, and I played volleyball with the locals for a couple of hours. Melinda and Cathy hobnobbed with other spectators. The quality of volleyball was quite low. The enthusiasm level was quite high. We had to regularly pause the game when albatrosses stumbled onto the playing court (sand).