Saturday 28th November
Fenella
Sat 28 Nov 2009 11:36
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We have now been a sea for nearly a
week and we have seen a variety life. Dolphins have visited
us twice with a large school coming to see Hutch early one morning and
spending some time playing around the boat and then a smaller group, of three or
four, appeared later one afternoon. The lines have also been out and early
on the second day of fishing - the lines had been trolled for less
than an hour - Tim's rod hooked a large Skipjack. I say
Tim's rod because Tim, although having carefully prepared his equipment as
fishermen do, was actually sound asleep at the time. Alan had set the
lines and shouted at the strike - there's no justice. We see
more sea birds the further we get out into the Atlantic, which seems
ewcounter-intuitive but they are there wheeling and diving but never,
apparently, flapping their wings. A few days after the ARC start we
started seeing flying fish. We have had three of these little fellows on
board, one on the foredeck, one in the cockpit (I stood on that one) and one
that thoughtfully flew down the companionway and straight into the
galley.
But our most remarkable encounter so far was
yesterday afternoon. I was below and heard a shout of "Whales!". About 20
feet behind the boat the back of a small whale broke the surface. Suddenly a
grey dorsal fin appeared and what can only have been a large shark attacked
the smaller whale with a vicious shake of its body. We saw the water turn
a cloudy brown and then they were gone. About 200 yards away
another whale blew - mum perhaps?
An amazing scene - we can't decide whether we
were fortunate or unfortunate to have ring side seats.
John. |