Wednesday 21 July 2010

Whale Ahoy!

From time to time we see whales when we are out sailing. It's always a thrill, but the encounters also leave me feeling VERY vulnerable. When sailing along the coast of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras, we had a close encounter with a big Sperm Whale. These are the ones of the classic Moby Dick tale, with the big square head. The beast was slumbering on top of the water in calm conditions, it was longer than our boat (40 feet) so it was a bloody good job that we both clocked each other in the nick of time and , astoundingly, obeyed the COLREGS and made the right direction of turn. Avoiding each other by a matter of feet.
That left my heart in my mouth I can tell you.

But these folk, off the coast of South Africa weren't so lucky. You occasionally read stories about whales attacking boats but it's rare to actually have photographic evidence. Have a look at these, scary huh!


You can read more about the story here.Now that's what you call a mess...

1 comment:

a quiet life said...

what an amazing story, i had no idea they could do that, i thought seeing the hull would register a warning for themselves...