The Whale Chicane
Location: Underway to Nuku Hiva
Hello friends, families, and everyone else!
Today was another awesome day underway.
As we continued sailing towards Nuku Hiva, suddenly Emma yelled WHALES WHALES WHALES!!!
When I say these big guys were close… they were seriously close. Two sperm whales were floating on the surface 20 meters off our port bow. We turned to starboard, but our wind angle prevented us from getting wide enough, especially as they started to swim in the same direction. Em then cut to port and threaded the needle between the two leviathans. Sperm Whales are the largest toothed whales on the planet, with males weighing up to 40-45 tones and females weighing more than 16; not exactly the sort of thing you want to crash into.
I, Henry, Sam, and Emma watched as these incredible animals swam past our stern and vanished into the expanse of the open ocean. We were so close; at times, we could see the tone of their muscles and small injuries along their backs. We were shaking with excitement and for minutes swapped between moments of cheering and then speechlessness. If this seems like an overreaction, I am the Marine Biology instructor, and getting unnecessarily excited about marine organisms is pretty much in my job description.
The day continued as normal, with my watch team taking the 12:00-14:00 watch during lunch. Brooks, Claire, and Maisy cooked up some awesome cheese sandwiches with veggies and chicken (tofu & eggs for vegetarians). We then broke into the standard class routine, with my class being first. We had a species ID quiz, which included reef species the students are likely to see in French Polynesia. We then had a normal class and got stuck into the anthropogenic impacts threatening the marine world. Not the happiest of topics, but an important one.
Following my class the students had Seamanship, they’ve been grinding away at Nav master the last few days so today was a bit of an easier class which appeared to be much appreciated.
Around 17:30, everyone began to come up for dinner. It was at this moment we saw that we had a ‘FISH ON’. We’ve become a well-oiled machine in swapping in and out as we reel in the fishing rod. Unfortunately, whatever was on the end of the line slipped off today, but it still added a bit of excitement to the evening.
We then tucked into a meal of rice, veg, and beef courtesy of the chefs.
Today’s been a good one, and everyone can’t wait to arrive in Nuku Hiva.
Thanks for reading,
-Ben