In the social media world, today is known as #TT or #ThrowbackThursday. Instead of posting a photograph to Facebook or Instagram, though, I’m sharing a note—a #ThrowbackNote.

Recently, I happened to be scrolling through the digital notes on my iPhone and came across one from my time last September aboard the Oscar Elton Sette. For those of you who read my dispatches from the Malama Monk Seal Voyage, you’ll remember I regularly spent watches aboard the ship observing monk seals that were en route to Ke Kai Ola, a rehabilitation facility at Kona on Hawai‘i (Big) Island.

Many of my watches took place in the middle of the night, say from 2:00 to 5:00 a.m. Some nights, I watched fireworks of stars striating the night sky. Some I watched the shadowed shapes of birds fly overhead. Throughout our 28 days aboard the ship, the moon grew full and, then, new. It was like watching the moon wax and wane in a flipbook.

But one night, apparently, I decided to capture what I was hearing. By this time, we’d already picked up the patient for Ke Kai Ola who we named Neva–after the expansive shoals on the south side of the island of Lisianski in the Northwestern Hawaiian Island chain, where Neva-the-monk-seal was collected.

To put it succinctly, Neva was a chatterbox—as in she Neva shut up. She’d sneeze. She’d bah, which she’d modulate in various lengths and repetitions. Sometimes, she’d finish off this sound with a firm stop, so it sounded like—bahhhht. But the most unusual sound I heard her make was what sounded like teeth chattering. And believe me she wasn’t cold. It was a new monk seal sound for me. But after waking the on-board veterinarian, she informed me that it wasn’t all the unusual. Thing is, I have a dog that smacks her teeth when she wants something—we call it, “giving lip”—so I guess I shouldn’t have been all that concerned about Neva’s chattering.

Here are my notes from that night:

2:15 sneeze

2:18 sneeze

2:19 sneeze

2:20 sneeze
Sneeze

2:22 sneeze

2:25 bahhh

2:25 bahhh

2:26 bahhh
Teeth chattering
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:27 bahhh
Bahhh bahhh

2:28 bahhht
Bahhh
Bahhhht
Bahhhht
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:29 bahhht
Bahhht
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:30 bahhh
Bahh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhht
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhht
Bahhh
Bahhht
Bahhht
Bahhht

2:31 bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhht
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhht

2:32 bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:33 bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bah

2:34 bahhhhhhh
Bahhhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:35 bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:36 bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:37 bahhhh
Bahhhh
Bahhhh
Bahhhh
Bahhhh
Bahhhh
Bahhhh

2:38 bahhh
Bahhht
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhht
Bahhht
Bahhh
Teeth chattering
Bahhhh

2:39 bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh

2:40 sneeze
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Bahhh
Teeth chattering

2:41 bahhh

At that point, I gave up. Or was distracted by stars. Or fell asleep. Or the battery on my phone died. Because I can guarantee Neva shut up.