Of Whales, Worm Holes and other Encounters
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Fri 12 Feb 2010 16:15
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Hello Friends
"9:30.5N
94:15.7W"
We continue to make good progress west along
our chosen parallel and in general, the conditions have been very good.
a few little stories for you...
A you know, we're staying north to avoid the
equatorial counter current and hopefully get a touch of north equatorial current
in our favour. We didn't however expect to get the current we've enjoyed - as
much as 3 knots in our favour - so that at times our ground speed has been over
10 knots for extended periods. This must be the secret route across - the Worm
Hole to the Marquesas. As I write, we've covered 206 miles over the ground in
the last 24 hours and that includes several hours yesterday afternoon, tootling
along at only 3 or 4 knots through the water.
We have seen a surprising amount of shipping
- not just big trans Pacific stuff going to and from Panama but a surprising
number of small craft. On Wednesday evening, one small boat appeared to be
attempting a rendezvous as from observation and our MARPA (*)appeared to be
adjusting course to intercept. Not having announced themselves politely on the
radio beforehand, we took this as a little improper and decided to give Blue Sky
a little helping hand from the engine for an hour to leave them well behind.
They seemed to resume course on a route from southern Colombia to Mexico and one
wonders what cargo a small boat might be carrying in such a direction, well
offshore... Probably best avoided we thought. We've seen several others since
and we give them a wide berth.
Yesterday afternoon saw the winds get rather
light and since we had a huge current taking us west, the winds needed to be
fairly fresh from the north east to give us enough apparent wind to fill the
sails. We were anticipating a slow and rolly night but the sea smoothed out and
the winds picked up and a comfortable night was had.
This morning as Michael was
on watch at 0800 he saw a large number of apparently excited dolphins
off to starboard. Followed by sighting a couple more 200 metres off the port bow
racing along at high speed ... and then a spout between them and us...
We'd run into a small pod of whales heading
north and from what I could guess we were in the middle. I saw one break the
surface maybe 70 metres off the port bow and then another closer underwater,
showing up blueish silver in the morning sun. A call of "Gentlemen! On Deck
Please, Lifejackets On." produced 3 eager crew, suitably kitted out in well
under ten seconds. I saw a large patch of smooth water behind - from the flukes
of another whale as it dived under us and the depth sounder showed it was 31
metres under us. Probably similar whales to the one I saw before - at least the
size of Blue Sky though I've no idea what whale.
But generally the passage has been kind to
us and we're presently making a good 7 knots west in bright
sunshine.
Here's a shot of sunset on Wednesday just
before we avoided the coke boat, sorry, fisherman. Note the very flat
sea.
 Best Wishes
George, Michael, Alex and Simon
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