wind and waves | 123of south, crossing the Equator in the direction of Brazil, all the while
hoping not to become becalmed in the calm winds of the Doldrums or
hindered by equatorial westerlies. Once well south of the Equator, the
clippers gradually turned to the east. On reaching latitudes south of the
Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, they could hope for a
brisk downwind run eastward to Australia or New Zealand.
Returning laden with wool from the Antipodes, the ships again ben-
efitted from the westerlies, all the way across the southern emptiness of
the Pacific. Once Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America, had
been rounded, they began to head north in the South Atlantic. How-
ever, to exploit the westerlies and then the South- east Trades, the north-
bound track in the South Atlantic was commonly to the east of the
southbound track. That southbound track was crossed around the Equa-
tor where again the Doldrums, sandwiched between the two trade wind
zones, posed a possible obstacle. Then, in the North Atlantic, the ships
were west of their southbound track, hoping to catch the westerlies to
provide a final spurt to England and home. The outcome was a figure-
of- 8 track in the North and South Atlantic, reflecting the large- scale
wind pattern across northern and southern hemispheres. At the broad
scale, the same pattern prevails in the North and South Pacific. It is a
pattern that influences the migrations of seabirds, and is indeed reflected
remarkably closely in the tracks of some species.
Exactly this figure- of- 8 track was described in Chapter 4 for those
Manx Shearwaters travelling between their Welsh nesting stations and
the non- breeding seas used off the coasts of Brazil and Argentina. An-
other species making trans- equatorial migrations is the Sooty Shear-
water. Those breeding in the New Zealand region head to the North
Pacific for the austral winter while those breeding in the Falklands go
to the North Atlantic. One important colony in the Falklands is the
33 hectare kidney- shaped Kidney Island. It is home to over 100,000
breeding shearwaters that April Hedd of Newfoundland’s Memorial
University was brave enough to study. I admire her bravery not so much
for risking scars from the shearwaters’ sharp bills but for risking en-
counters with South American Sea Lions. Shearwaters choose to site
their nesting burrows amid clumps of tussac grass as high as a person.