Whale Sharks!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 7 May 2011 14:47
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Saturday 7th of May 2011 1841Local ime
1341UTC
02:31.797N 072:59.439E
Yesterday morning after a splendid nights sleep at
Maamigilee we set off for the reef along the south side of Ari Atoll. The reef
circling the south islands and enclosing a magnificent stretch of turquoise
lapping white sand, is brown therefor three metres deep or so. The shelf is
about twenty to forty metres wide then it plunges down into the dark blue
at 40 - 50 metres. A little further out depths run to sebveral hundred
metres!
Whale sharks like to come up fromn the depths and
swim along the coral reef shelf plankton feeding before plunging back down to
the depths. The technique is to sail along the very edge of the reef. I mean the
very edge. Over one side of the boat you are looking at the bottom and over the
other the depths are 30 plus metres.
You need to get high up to look down into the water
looking for their silhouettes in the shallows. This means me standing above the
bimini with the remote control steering Rhiann Marie down the fine line at the
edge of the reef. Anyway cutting to the chase.......
Yesterday morning I spent about ten minutes
swimming alongside a whale shark in about four metres of water. The sighting was
made and snorkelled up and fins on I jumped over while Trish who was very
apprehensive about going into the water decided to stay aboard and
helm.
The creature was stunningly beautiful. It was about
six metres long and its tail fin was about one metre top to bottom. The head was
flat and sleek and only when swimming above the fish (the largest fish in the
world remember!) did I see the full width of its head which was kind of square
and flat and about 90cm wide. The colouring was dark brown almost charcoal, and
the spots were almost pure white. Behind the dorsal fin there were a series of
ridges running lengthwise. I cannot begin to tell you how incredible this
experience was. Had I wanted to it would have been easy to touch it but
recommended practice was of course not to and to swim along side which I could
have done for as long as i wanted. The speed was just comfortable and it did not
seem to mind people at all. Not once did the words "Spear" or "Gun" come into my
naturalists environmentally friendly mind.
After swimming back to Rhiann Marie we hunted back
along to the west and got a couple of sightings. Trish plucked up the
courage and jumped in. It is difficult however to judge the speed and distance
and the boatman, me in this case, needs to guide the swimmer to the side of
the shark. I did not do a good job and lost sight of the monster. Trish looked
up a couple of times for guidance but I could just tell her to keep swimming.
Then I heard the ear piercing scream. She was just about to give up when
the monster swam underneath her from behind. She freaked out and immediately
wanted back to the boat both she and the Whale Shark having taken
fright!
We have now had interactions with many types of
Sharks, Humpback whales, Turtles, Eagle and other Rays, Whale Sharks, Manta
Rays
After that we set off south again in the wonderful
reaching conditions that are prevailing with the westerlies at the moment. We
are sailing at 9 and 10 knots in almost flat waters beam reaching, hardening up
onto the wind to round a reef easing away to drop down below the next one. I
don't believe i have ever or perhaps will ever again experience such wonderful
sailing conditions inside these atolls. This has to be one of the worlds
greatest sailing locations overlooked by almost everyone being neither on
the route through the Red Sea or the traditional route south. But it is on
our route and I am revelling in the amazing conditions.
Squalls and thunderclouds are pssing through but
they can be spotted from afar. The anchorages however are hard to come by and
without the level of detail needed on the charts and it seems no pilot book
available we are discovering our own anchorages. As it is very deep and way
too shallow close in however, we sometimes have to try several
before settling for the night. Last night we had the most amazing
coral reef garden surrounded little desert island to ourselves today we sailed
through six anchorages and two atolls in fact before settling into a
marginal anchorage just before it got completely dark. I will tell you in the
morning if it worked out as there is an island windward of us but i dont yet
know what it is like till it gets
bright.
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