Some people pay a small fortune to go whale watching but only get a distant glimpse of a fluke or spray. Today we had a ring-side seat for free and feel immensely privileged. For some ten minutes we enjoyed the company of a 40+ foot long whale, we think, a sperm whale, although none of us on board SYCORAX are experts in whale recognition.

It started just after 16:30 as we motor sailed across from the Spanish mainland towards the island if Ibiza. We were around twenty eight miles from the island, John was down below inspecting the inside of his eye-lids, Sam was reclining on the fore-deck soaking up the sun, Anne was reading her kindle and I was at the wheel. I caught sight of a spume of spray off our port beam about half a mile away and, a few seconds later spied what I thought was a small dark fin. I called “whale!” to get everyone’s attention. For a few moments we saw nothing, then, there it was again, another spume of spray. I throttled the engine right back and we furled away the head-sail (we were motor sailing at the time) and turned the boat to get a closer look.

I didn’t want to disturb the whale so we approached to around four boat lengths. It was massive, lying right at the surface and blowing spray in to the air every few minutes. It seemed totally unconcerned by our presence and periodically raised its head out of the water to take a look at us. We all had our cameras out recording this fabulous experience. For several minutes we circled this beautiful creature, snapping away on our cameras or, in my case, recording video footage. Sam was all for getting in the water to get acquainted but I said no. It was a great privilege to be allowed to get this close to such a creature but I believe in respecting its privacy. We went round one more time and then I gently opened the throttle to resume our course.

“There she blows!” called John. I turned round just in time to see the whale raise its tail fluke in the air – waving us goodbye, perhaps, and then it was gone. It was a fantastic, possibly once in a life time, experience. Why, oh why do people have to hunt these intelligent animals?

This whale was by no means the only sea-creature we have seen in the past few days. We left Caleta de Velez on Wednesday morning at around 11:30. At the time the wind was still quite strong but predicted to drop. It was also coming from behind us so we sailed with just the jib unfurled, initially making good time. The wind did drop and within a few hours the engine was on, however, there was quite a swell running and the motion in the boat was quite awkward. We had only been going for around an hour when Anne, who had gone below to start sorting things for lunch, was thrown across the cabin and landed very hard in a corner. She was in a lot of pain and we initially feared she had cracked a rib. Once again Sam’s expertise with sporting injuries came into play and he sorted out an ice-pack to apply to the bruised area (Damn, there go the gin and tonics again!).

That afternoon we motored east past numerous bays. Anne was resting below whilst the rest of us were on deck. Suddenly the surface of the sea was broken by a pod of pilot whales heading west. We had an excellent view of around six or eight of these small whales / large dolphins as they broke the surface just a few boat lengths away.

That evening, with the wind down to just 2 knots, we decided to anchor for the night in a bay which the pilot book stated was a safe and secure anchorage. We glided slowly in watching the depth gauge and looking for the best spot to drop the hook. Sam was up in the bow – thank goodness, and suddenly called “NET!!”. I immediately took the engine out of gear and turned to starboard. As I did, I looked over the side and saw a continuous fishing net held just below the surface by a line of cork floats. We escaped by a hair’s breadth and breathing a sigh of relief we motored clear before finally dropping the anchor.

Unfortunately whilst the anchorage was certainly safe, it was far from comfortable! Despite the fact that the wind had dropped earlier in the afternoon the swell persisted right through the night and we got very little sleep as the boat constantly rolled and/or pitched. It was quite a relief to get on our way again the following morning.

The weather on Thursday was glorious and we set off for the long passage to Ibiza, some two hundred a fifty miles away. Apart from a brief break at San Jose to refuel and the gentle throbbing of the boat’s engine progressing us on our way there was nothing to write about until this afternoon when, before our encounter with the whale, we were, once again, treated to another dolphin display. As I said before I feel so privileged to see these creatures in their natural habitat enjoying their lives as they should.