Fw: Ghostly Visitors 44:39.6N 20:55.0W Sailed 424 miles 817 to go
Ellatrout3
Thu 7 Aug 2014 16:42
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Resend and amended,
Tropical storm Bertha heading our way so we have turned
south to get as far away as possible.
Current position at 1600 gmt Thursday 42:52N 20:54W
course 130 degrees true.
P,S & R
----- Original Message -----
From: Roger
To: Web Diary
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2014 4:43 PM
Subject: Ghostly Visitors 44:39.6N 20:55.0W Sailed 424 miles 817 to
go Above position at Noon GMT Thursday 7th August
2014
The light conditions continued into the night with rain,
lots of rain and the wind was ever changing keeping the skipper up most of the
night. We have only cover 84 miles in the last 24 hours although at the
time of writing, 2pm Thursday, we are beating into a NE force 5,
blowing 22knots true, so we are moving but not really in the right
direction.
At 0200 this morning my alarm failed to wake me but woke
the rest of the crew and when Sarah came to wake me she saw a whale, or I
should say heard a whale, swimming by in the opposite direction. Patch saw
another and rushed on deck but it had disappeared. It was a black night,
pouring with rain and we were gliding along at 4 knots in quiet
conditions. We thought they had gone! But no; a few
minutes later one was blowing alongside travelling with us. It was huge,
much longer than the boat and showing an unhealthy interest in us.
Suddenly an exciting situation became rather worrying.
The phosphoresant glow created by the whale passing
through the water created a ghostly shroud with the black whale in the
middle. We soon realised there was more than one because we could see
these ghostly outlines, and hear them, on both sides of us and they
were coming very close. We decided to start the engine in the hope that
the noise or change of speed would turn them away. They took no notice and
continued to circle the ship and then one swam right under us at an angle and
the width of it illuminated by the phosphoresance was nearly as long as the boat
and it was so long it seemed to take an age to clear us. We were in
awe of these creatures, they were so huge and yet behaving like the
dolphins and playing with us.
Can you imagine the scene; three tiny people standing in
the cockpit in the pouring rain on a pitch black night with enormouus ghostly
monsters circleing and blowing on all sides. It is difficult to describe
how we felt, fear and wonder? I don't know but the skipper was certainly
worried. They stayed with us for a very long three quarters of an
hour passing under us several times. From the phosphoresant outline there
was obviously a cow and calf amongst them and we were pretty sure they were finn
whales by the time they left. Afterwards we were glad we had seen them but
we were also glad to see them go!!
I suppose we do them an injustice worrying they might
touch the boat, despite their huge size they must know exactly where they are in
relation to other objects just like the dolphins who pass within inches of the
bow when they come to play. I'm sure we were in no danger but it didn't feel
like that at the time.
Bertha:
We are waiting to see what tropical storm Bertha is going
to do and whether it will bring us trouble but with the current head winds we
are making poor progress along the course home so maybe it will pass before we
reach its path? We can only wait and see.
Love Patch, Sarah and Poppa/Dad/Roger
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