WHALE!!
Chelone's travels.....
John and Susie Blair.
Thu 6 Dec 2012 09:36
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N18:00.00 W44:45.00
There we were, all sitting in the cockpit having a
chat after breakfast yesterday and suddenly Susie noticed we had
company!....and sure enough a Whale was a boat's length away
abreast of the cockpit!
Cameras were grabbed and we spent the next hour
whooping as the little Whale circled continuously around and under Chelone. It
seemed very curious of our little ship and at times followed alongside as well
as just under our Bowsprit, literally just feet away as Susie and myself were on
there ourselves.
Once our visitor had departed and we'd calmed down
we set to identifying it from the great Whale and Dolphin book we have onboard
(Kindly left by Anna). We reckon it was a 'Minke' Whale, around 15-20 foot
long with a pointed nose, curved dorsal fin and a lot of white on it's body and
fins. We did get some photos but nothing very exciting, no breeching
unfortunately!
We've had some really great sailing here as
Chelone screams along on a beam reach at near maximum speed, ideal conditions
with scorching sunshine seeing us sunbathing on deck with hatches open
giving maximum ventilation below decks as it's over 80 degrees night and
day.
We fancied some more fish so the line was set
and before long the reel was whining and the fight was
on! The line definitely felt different, this fish was
putting up a good fight, I thought maybe a Tuna but it turned out to be a
Trigger fish! a first for me and a nice change to catch something different. We
reset the line and before long a lovely Mahi Mahi was landed so we kept the line
aboard after that as we now had more than enough to feed the five of
us.
The other evening, 'eagle eye' spotter,
Susie announced there was a green (Starboard) light of a yacht off our
Port quarter and shortly afterwards we chatted with the Skipper of German
flagged s/y 'Frangipani' over the vhf radio.
Sailing out of Las Palmas bound for St.
Lucia as an 'ARC' participant with eight crew onboard. She was the
first vessel we'd seen for a week and certainly the first yacht since leaving
Lanzarote, we exchanged pleasantries and she disappeared into the
night.
The heading in the subject line for this
blog was originally.... 'Bacon found!!!' as I'd discovered a totally
unmolested pack of Smoked 'Best Back' in the dark recesses of the
freezer but the headline was usurped by the Whale story! I made a bacon
sarnie for Susie and bacon, egg and fried bread for Ross and myself (Martin
& Louise are Vegetarian, whoop!) Incidentally, the toast on which
all was served was from a fabulous loaf baked by Ross himself (See pic
attached).
Oh, one last thing...just to let you know, we're
just under the 1000 miles mark now and still hopeful to make our landfall
next Weds/Thurs given fair winds.
TTFN, JB.
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