Day 38 - La Coruna

Silk Sheets
Ben Shute & Fiona Kennelly
Sun 31 Aug 2008 16:20

We pulled up our Anchor Friday 29th August and sailed off headed for La Coruna 43:22.06N 8:23.76W 

 

After waiting for 2 days to leave after a constant force 8 gale we could finally go, praying that the sea state would be ok we crept around the head land and headed out to sea. To much of our surprise the water was absolutely fine and we were fortunate to have enough wind behind us to fly the kite for the first couple of hours until everything went from a great little wind to nothing at all. Typical I thought having waited 2 days for a weather window we now had nothing at all.

 

As we made our way into La Coruna slowly as we were not in a hurry we saw a couple of whales in the distance swim past our boat. Cool!  More whales I thought, anyhow about 30 minutes later we saw more if not the same whales again off our port bow, and once again 30 minutes later we saw them again off the starboard bow. It was almost as though the whales were tacking across our front and as we were fortunate enough to get a little more wind we cruised along at about 3 Knots to be greeted by what we believe to be 4 pilot whales. The gang was only small but they were definitely a family. The most amazing thing that I can say I have seen in a whole week was watching 3 of the whales surface together only meters from the yacht while the young or baby whale swam beside us playing with the boat looking straight into our eyes as it ducked and dived on its path to where ever it was off to. To top it off Alex and I were both spun out looking into the water at the stern thinking that they were chasing fish following us only to learn that the young whale was tracking the boat upside down almost laughing at us while we stared down at it. Amazing is all I have to say and a very rewarding day to be lucky enough to experience such a wonder full sight.

 

 

Special comments by Fiona:  The whales were absolutely amazing.  At first I was afraid but having Yolanda on board who loves all things in nature encouraged me that the whales are our friends!  I think they were with us for about an hour, coming up to the surface every few minutes to say hello.  And of course we felt the need to celebrate such an amazing experience and crack open a bottle of some fine champagne.  When in Spain with the whales….. 

 

Day 38

Destination – La Coruna

Traveling Direction –West

Wind Direction – All over the place and mainly a light breeze

Average Speed 3.6 Knots

Top Speed – 7.3 Knots Through the water

Total distance – 28.6 Nautical Miles

Travel Time – 7.43 Hours

Temperature – 29 degrees

Crew     - Fiona    (Not scared of whales any-more)

-          Alex  (Drunk Again)

-          Yolli  (Hippy)

Missing Work – NO

Expenses – €35 Provisions

 

Next Destination – Ria de Corme y Lage

 

 

 

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image