22.11.2010 Visitors ?26:10N
15:46W?
I was coming off my watch around 1.00 am. It
was a beautiful night. The full moon with a huge halo (Approx. 10 times the
diameter of the moon itself.) appeared around 20.00. We were wondering if this
infrequent phenomenon was a good or bad sign for our trip. We had light wind
around 4-8kts and the asymmetrical spinnaker (AS) was filled propelling us
forward with 6-7kts. My watch ended and as I was descending into the cabin when
suddenly Kynan called out. ?Liz, do you hear this
whistling??
I listened and indeed there was a whistling
noise, more like birds chattering than the authoritive call of a whistle. The
unidentified noise was sometimes louder, sometimes confused, sometimes very
weak. From time to time it became suddenly quiet just to emphasize that indeed
something unusual was happening. It is quite extraordinary how one gets used to
the myriads of small noises on the boat and immediately recognizes when
something is out of the ordinary. I dismissed the whistle first as ?boat noise?
but Kynan excitedly declared ?Dolphins? ? this was almost like the call ?All
hands? ? and it sent everyone on deck.
Not everyone was happy with the wake up call. Mark grumpily mentioned
something about ?bloody Flippers?.
Indeed
there they were. The larger cousins of the juvenile pod that greeted us at our
arrival at Las Palmas. They were 2-3 m long beautiful
creatures. Their bodies gleamed like shiny black onyx as they came out of the
water to breathe. We have often had several dolphins swimming with us, gliding
on our bow wave but I never heard them chattering before. I rested on the aft
cabin bunk and listened ?tititi tata pipapipi tata papa tititi pipipi? as it
went on for 10-15 minutes. And whenever I looked out of the side hatch I could
see one of them there. We were next to each other separated by only a thin
fiberglass layer. What were they thinking? I am sure they knew I was there;
yearning to join them but evolution separated us for ever.
L