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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dandsblair" data-source="post: 3357064" data-attributes="member: 107571">Boat trip heaven!We had 6.30 breakfast, 3 Japanese birds were off to look for the Steller's Eider (Eric had gone off early en-route to the airport at Kushiro - a long detour so I hope he got the bird), we were waiting for confirmation that our boat trip was on as some poor weather was forecast, Mr Matsuo got the call from the captain we would be going out as things were still calm. So off we went to Habomai but not before Sarah took her sea sickness medicine,* you have to buy your ticket from the bank in the harbour it is the only office up some stairs a few yards from the harbour so allow some time. You buy your ticket at the last desk, they spoke a few words of English and the tickets show a picture of the boat we were on, tickets are ¥5000. There were only 3 others on the trip a Japanese family who seemed more interested in getting close to Russian territory than the birds. We set off about 15 minutes early and it was pretty calm, we quickly got Harlequin Duck, Black Scoter, Long tailed Duck and Scaup, then as we leave the calm of shelter it gets a bit choppy but we are happy to get a good flight view of Crested Auk, as we got out towards the Russian waters the guy on deck was pointing at things and the captain would slow, we were seeing things regularly and we got lots of Spectacled Guillemots, a couple of Pigeon Guillemot before one of our main targets a nice Ancient Murrelet put in an appearance, we added to the list with Bruinich's Guillemot and then found our main target Least Auk, it was just about possible to photograph it in the rising waves and spray. We were still seeing quite a bit but the Captain indicated we needed to get into a stuffy little cabin, the 2 Japanese ladies were already alongside the captain on the little bridge, the younger lady had been suffering since we left the harbour.We didn't mind a bit of spray so we were allowed to stand at the back but things with getting much worse, we must go in now as the captain wanted to get back quickly, no sooner were we in than a massive wave washed across the boat, it could have taken us overboard if we had stayed where we were. We then had a most unpleasant 20 minutes as the little boat fought the conditions and got us back to harbour. A 2.5 metre swell doesn't sound much but on a small boat coupled with a strong wind it meant that we were almost completely under water on deck. We were just glad to get back onshore and although feeling a little queasy with no sickness, Sarah said it was the worst she has felt without being sick. We didn't feel short changed that the trip was shorter than planned, we would try to get the birds missed at a sea-watch from the Cape.</blockquote>

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