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Wildlife spotting
Monday, 5 October 2009
On Cape Breton Island, Tom Gruitt had been wildlife spotting, both on and off the boat!
"We have been on a charge downwind for a few days now, it's 0400 and I've just got off the helm after some epic sailing. We are currently getting surfs of near 20 knots with the medium weight spinnaker. There are some great waves out there that just take you faster and faster until you plough into the next one! I was rudely awakened early this morning by a wave breaking into the cockpit and coming through the small hatch near my bunk, it was quite refreshing though. As the last few schedules have come in we have been making more miles per 12 hours than any other boat, this means we are catching up pretty quickly and are constantly pushing hard to gain as many miles as we can. Life down below the boat is getting really hot, sleeping at night is hard in this heat and many people are starting to look a little weary. Simon and I were just chatting on deck saying how strange it is to be hundreds of miles out in the ocean at night just wearing shorts and t-shirt and still being too hot!
"On this trip we have seen a lot of wildlife, some off the boat and some on it! We usually get our nightly display by the dolphins, lighting up the water with the phosphorescence, it's a truly magical experience to watch them play, I'm still not bored of it. I can happily sit on the foredeck watching, hearing them click and squeak as they jump a good six feet out of the wake. Yesterday evening we had a pretty close encounter with two whales, we spotted them crossing out bows and were on a collision course but they seemed to know the rules of the road and as they were on port they slowed down and gave way! We passed about 20 feet in front of them and they blew spray in the air and all over the boat.
"I think the closest encounter with ocean wildlife was with the flying fish. I was on the coffee grinder trimming the spinnaker as we surfed downwind and to my surprise a flying fish flew out of the water straight into my face, it took me slightly by surprise and actually hurt quite a lot! We were doing about 15 knots at the time and it must have been flying at 20, that's quite an impact speed! I am now tempted to put the helmet and goggles on when I return to deck, just in case. They are mad little things, always trying to get on deck and often ending up flying down one of the open hatches into the galley or saloon down below, it's great hearing the reaction as one lands on the table! Other sightings include bats, they sometimes stop and cling to the guardrail for a rest. We have had a couple of birds land on the spreader too hitching a free ride south, they don't seem too worried by the 6ft high eagle on the side of the boat's hull!
"With the only noise out here being the water rushing past the hull and general boat noises, Morgan and I have realised that a lot of things on here sound like animals too. We have a spinnaker halyard that sounds like a cow, mooing is way downwind, accompanied by the port primary winch that sounds like an elephant roaring when the sheet is eased through it. Recently the boom has started sounding like a dawn chorus of toads and crickets each time we roll over a wave (it does honestly!). The latest addition to the Cape Breton farm is a donkey. We can hear it on the foredeck somewhere but are still not sure exactly what is making the noise, as I sit here now I can hear it gently eeyoring away, we shall investigate when it gets light."
posted by Hyde Sails at
10:20
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