29 Jan 24 - ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso Day 12 - Approaching The Lesser Antilles

We woke to our sixth and final day at sea before we reached Grenada: our first Lesser Antilles island. It was another full day on deck from sunrise to sunset. The team and a few passengers were all present at sunset, but sadly, there was no repeat of the previous evening's Green Flash.

Terry (left) nattering with Chris: one of our regular Cetacean watchers

Finally, there were a few avian highlights with a Band-rumped Storm-petrel sp. (which couldn't be resolved to which species it was), a very distant Tropicbird sp., plus, two each of Brown Booby and Masked Booby. The Tropicbird and Booby sightings were good as this was a good indication that we were finally getting closer to the Caribbean islands.

Brown Booby: Adult. This is the nominate leucogaster subspecies which breeds on the islands in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean & tropical Atlantic. In recent years, a few individuals have been seen around the UK coastline

Masked Booby: Subadult. This is the nominate dactylatra subspecies which breeds on the islands in the Caribbean, along the adjacent Venezuelan coast, Trindade Island, Ascension Island & St Helena. Maybe it will be the next Booby species that Bob Flood & co. will find on the Scillies

Jan's explaining something to a couple of the passengers: Passenger engagement was something that we all enjoyed and our Cetacean and other wildlife conversations seemed to be appreciated

Charlotte did an excellent job of ensuring our sightings board looked interesting: Even on the quiet days

I think we all went to bed looking forward to our arrival in Grenada and our first Caribbean run ashore. Having only visited St Lucia and Dominica, there were several new countries from the eight Caribbean landings for me.