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Date: 22 Nov 2010 10:24:54
Title: Fenix 22.11 Visitors
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22.11.2010      Visitors     “26:10N 15:46W”

 

I was coming off my watch around 1.00 am. It was a beautiful night. The full moon with a huge halo (Approx. 10 times the diameter of the moon itself.) appeared around 20.00. We were wondering if this infrequent phenomenon was a good or bad sign for our trip. We had light wind around 4-8kts and the asymmetrical spinnaker (AS) was filled propelling us forward with 6-7kts. My watch ended and as I was descending into the cabin when suddenly Kynan called out. “Liz, do you hear this whistling?”

I listened and indeed there was a whistling noise, more like birds chattering than the authoritive call of a whistle. The unidentified noise was sometimes louder, sometimes confused, sometimes very weak. From time to time it became suddenly quiet just to emphasize that indeed something unusual was happening. It is quite extraordinary how one gets used to the myriads of small noises on the boat and immediately recognizes when something is out of the ordinary. I dismissed the whistle first as “boat noise” but Kynan excitedly declared “Dolphins” – this was almost like the call ”All hands” – and it sent everyone on deck.  Not everyone was happy with the wake up call. Mark grumpily mentioned something about “bloody Flippers”.

Indeed there they were. The larger cousins of the juvenile pod that greeted us at our arrival at Las Palmas. They were 2-3 m long beautiful creatures. Their bodies gleamed like shiny black onyx as they came out of the water to breathe. We have often had several dolphins swimming with us, gliding on our bow wave but I never heard them chattering before. I rested on the aft cabin bunk and listened “tititi tata pipapipi tata papa tititi pipipi” as it went on for 10-15 minutes. And whenever I looked out of the side hatch I could see one of them there. We were next to each other separated by only a thin fiberglass layer. What were they thinking? I am sure they knew I was there; yearning to join them but evolution separated us for ever. L
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