Somewhere off Gladstone
Farr Gone Blog
Stuart Cannon
Thu 13 Oct 2011 09:42
During the afternoon I spotted something ahead in the water. It looked, at a distance like an inflatable dinghy or some kind of flotsam of significant size. As I got closer it became ever more mysterious as the shape was odd but it was white and grey. Then all of a sudden, when I was around two hundred meters away it suddenly vanished only to reappear as a whale, annoyed by the approach of a boat. Apparently I had disturbed it's sleep. It swam away a bit from the course I was on and stuck it's tail back in the air and went back to sleep. Quite the sight as it seemed to be using the wind on it's tail. Given the fact that Australia has become totally the nanny state I'm surprised there aren't warning signs out here saying danger whales and five knot speed limits. Perhaps there's a job for me running around putting in floating stop go signs. I'm sure our current government could be talked into that one.
So I'm currently working out the time vs distance equation and wondering when I will arrive in Bundy. Trouble is that depends on speed and that has been varying constantly so it may be tomorrow or it could be Saturday. Don't really care that much but it's good mental exercise and prevents me dwelling on more crappy things. Every now and again mobile reception becomes possible and when it does a flurry of email checking and google plussing ( is that what it's called?) goes on and just when you go to press send, it drops out. Doohh.
Something else worth mentioning is the large amount of algal bloom. Acres of the stuff and it's a nasty brown colour. Quite unsightly. During a large section of clear water I was tempted to have a quick dip as the boat was almost stationary. I lowered the tailgate and sat there pondering the wisdom of such a move when the largest jellyfish I have ever seen drifted by. It must have been nearly a metre across And I'm sure it was harmless but even so I was immediately discouraged.
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