January 18, 2010
Ensenada to Bahia Santa Maria Picassa Pictures
It was an absolutely Cretaceous day, even Algebra had to be put on hold for awhile. The morning was almost glassy calm, the excitement started as we were assembling in the cockpit for a morning of math, Kennan said he heard a “poof” right next to us (I was getting pencils, and was sure he was looking for diversions). But sure enough, on inspection, there was a marked flukeprint in the water very close to the boat. Not long after a large blue whale made his lumbering appearance on our aft quarter, and he followed along for awhile. Then as we were attempting to settle to task again Frank hollered, “to starboard!” and raced from the nav station to the helm turning us on a dime – lines in the water bedamned (OK I’m exaggerating with the bedamned) – and heads for…a green sea turtle with large barnacles on his back snoozing. Just as we were getting back on course, I spotted something off in the distance that looked like a pod of something larger than dolphins. In the interest of science we had to verify if they were orca or? Nope pilot whales, perhaps 20-30, but they stayed too far away to get any good pictures, until we turned our back on them, then emboldened by our retreat, they decide to investigate us, at one point they were probably 10′ astern. “I could have spit in his vent.” says Frank. The Pilot whales kept with us and made it totally impossible to start Algebra. After about an hour we spotted bigger blows on the opposite side of the boat. A sperm whale! No wait 2 blows, no make that 4, wait is that the same whale? We never got an accurate count, but it turned out to be at least 10 sperm whales. I didn’t know they traveled in pods. So we had the pilot whales to starboard, the sperm whales to port, both angling slowly towards our track. When the two came together there was an explosion of activity almost in front of us. We didn’t see any blood, but the water absolutely boiled about 250 yards away big blows, little blows, flukes, tails of all sizes circling in a giant “Big Dog Party” At one point some dolphins (spinners?) that had been swimming with the pilot whales popped out of the water in giant leaps of ecstasy (maybe fear?) 20-30 feet out of the middle of the boil. I don’t think I’m exaggerating on the lengths and dimensions. I got a few good shots, but the party was a little far to get much detail (would have needed a lens with a tripod…not much good on a boat).

I guess my brother Gartly was sadly right in an email just Saturday “I’ve heard that the surge in squid population is one of the signs of an unhealthy balance (imbalance) in the predator fish ratios. Might be nice for some of the cetaceans though.” Prescient of our day today?

We did manage to slog through Algebra by 4:00 helped along by increasing winds that set an urgency to the pace. But we’re now behind in Latin and grammar. I know every day will not be this thrilling, and I’m exhausted from the erratic sleep schedule, but a day like today just makes this all worthwhile.

xoxomo

From Kennan’s journal: “It was a marine mammal all you can eat squid party”

From Logan’s journal: “…It was going to be either the greatest marine battle to be seen or the most awesome party on the face of the planet. When the dolphins started jumping 30 feet into the air, my worries evaporated.”