Whale Strike at night? You decide. 5^th July

Two nights ago while Rob was on watch and sitting in the saloon suddenly a loud bang filled the cabin as Zoonie was shifted sideways by something very solid. Items from the centre part of the table shot to the floor when usually the wooden fiddles would have kept them in place and, mysteriously, there was no accompanying splash after the bang that would confirm it was a wave or a wall of water.

I have often lain in bed wondering if this would be the night of our close encounter of the leviathan kind. We were under sail so only it’s in built sonar would have warned it of our coming within its range and if it was asleep then impact would have been a complete surprise. There are clearly plenty of whales out her, judging by the ones we have seen being only a small representation of the whole population.

It did not retaliate and attack us so hopefully that means we didn’t hurt it, only shock it from its slumbers.

Maybe we will see a less weedy patch on Zoonie’s hull in the vicinity of impact that would confirm it, until then what do you think? Was it a wave, a wall of water or a whale?

6^th July. The flapjack is smelling nice in the oven. I used honey today as I have to use up the last of the Spanish honey before we get to FP. (French Polynesia) Zoonie is speeding along at 6+ knots goose-winged and on course, I think she’s as keen to get there as we are to start exploring the archipelago.

We are 10 miles from the three quarter mark, 903 miles now and 893 at the mark. Should be another week at sea.

I woke up this morning missing Toby. So I thought it through again. We have met people who would not do what we are doing because of the dog/cat. We have met people who do what we are doing with the dog/cat, and we have met people who did what we did and gave away their beloved dog/cat to a good friend or relative and keep in touch as to how the dog/cat is doing, and that’s us. Little in this world is ideal is it.

For the first time on this passage we have started seeing fish and shark swimming alongside us. Yesterday a tuna and a shark with a white tip to its pectoral fin. Unfortunately we don’t have a book on sharks, so we’ll have to Google him when we have WIFI. Apparently sharks like the FP archipelago so when it comes to sitting in the dinghy to clean off Zoonie’s waterline we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled.

I’ve been reading Jeffrey Archer’s prison trilogy from when he was incarcerated back in 2001. He finishes his sentence in an open prison in Norfolk, where he comments that the prisoners have more freedom than the inmates up at Butlins in Skeggy because the latter are locked in at night. Love it. What a harrowing tale though. So many cases of men who should never have gone to prison at all, including himself of course.

Tonight in the Zooniedrome we will start watching the third series of Vikings. We tried last night but for some reason this computer would not play the DVD. So we watched an episode of Fawlty Towers, you know the one where the hotel guest dies in his room and the doctor will do nothing till he’s had his sausages. The main prop was the laundry basket!

I fired up the ancient Dell computer, set it charging and found that Vikings plays fine on it. So tonight’s performance will continue on schedule! Bring out the ice creams! I wonder why it doesn’t on the Samsung?