Whales Playing in the Bay

Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Thu 14 Oct 2010 04:12

Morning broke we are getting 20 knot gusts coming through the valleys, but the sun reflected against the western hills of the bay, but the bay was lake. The frigate birds were up and circling and as Sean and Alex came up the snorts of a school of dolphins hunting just off to out port side and many of the broke the mirror like layer on the bay. What a way to wake, so tranquil.

After sorting out the boat we headed for the reported beach around the north head next to island, as we went up Alex was driving the dinghy he has taken to been the captain and driving so we do the odd 360. We arrived at a pebble / sandy beach with the jungle coming down to the beach I mean thick jungle. We could hear monkeys squealing in the trees but are yet to see one. We swam and played here until I trod on a couple of sea urchins, (on going back to see what had got me I saw that these ones are different to what I have seen before 2 to 3 inch spines and a cluster of them together) needless to say I was not happy.

But the highlight of the day was while swimming we heard a clapping sound, and looking out at the entrance to the back between the two points we could see 2 whales (looklike hump backs but cannot confirm) a calf and probably Mum. The calf was breaching and the mother was raising her tail and half the body out of the water and slapping it down on the water. We have heard it is related to communication, but this went on for ½ hour while we just swam ¼ mile away, it was an amazing site and we discussed it with the boys. Sean latter saw the whales come up 20 meters of our boat between us and Sunsation. They are apparently often in the bay and we will see them.

During the afternoon I dived the aft of the boat cleaning the prop well, and then all the rudder and aft section as this is really the first full clear water in 6 months. There is a lot of grime on the bottom which would have slowed us down, but I am also while fitter than I have been in years I have not dived a lot in 6 months, so I did an 1 hour and will do some more tomorrow and the next day before we leave here, hopefully it will improve our efficiency and speed, time will tell.

“Cherry Bowl “ a trawler power boat we stayed with in Bahia de Sol for 2 months pulled into the bay after 2 nights out after coming down directly from El Salvador they had problems with water in the fuel and are out of filters. Will drop over and see them tomorrow they are exhausted.

Drinks were on Sunsation where we chattered about plans and options, as the check in rules seem to changing here and Danny has had issues, we will have to play it by ear. But it was fun to catch up and boys like to explore other peoples boats.

So as cooked the barbeque tonight there are 3 boats in the bay all of us know each other, and lots of sounds, and wind gusts blow and lightning flashes we see in the distance but only a sprinkle of rain, we have a low off us tomorrow so suspect we may get some rain tomorrow, helps when we have so many showers as we swim all the time.

Tomorrow we explore the immediate coast and jungle