A whale of an experience
22 March 2009 | Marina de la Paz
Hola Amigos, We were going to have a simple motor from Isprtitu Santos with no wind and no seas and good visibility. We had a close encounter with a shrimper. It appeared that they were on autopilot and tending their nets as we were on a collision course. A little change in course and slowing down avoided that collision.
We were both in the cockpit when ML looked up and yelled" Whale dead ahead". She quickly went to the helm, put the engine in neutral and beared off 20 degrees. So we zigged while hoping that the whale would zag. No such luck. It is quite a sight seeing a whale's tail on one side of your boat, its head on the other and your hull going over its back. Lewis wondered if it thought it was a dolphin.
Somehow there was no bump and we looked back seeing the whale fluking on down the channel. Lewis quickly went below and was happy to see no water in the bilge, the keel bolts still intact, and the engine still running. Some how another collision avoided.
Lewis tried to look up whale collisions and found out that not much is known about why they would happen at slow speeds. Whale's sonar is excellent. They can even see up to 35 ft.. While our whale was definitely awake, one thought is that sometimes you hit a sleeping whale. This is an interesting concept because a whale has to be awake and partially out of the water to breath. A possible explanation of how whales don't drown is that only one half of their brain is asleep and the other half is awake. People have noted "sleeping whales" with 1 eye open and 1 eye shut.
There never seems to be a dull day on the water.
We are "stuck" in Marina de la Paz watching UCLA embarrass Lewis, watching his bracket slowly sink in the sunset and waiting for a Northerly to blow over.
Happy Fluking to you until we Blog again.
Mary Lee and Lewis