It was just after we switched from Mustang Spinny to BWB. The breeze was in the mid-20s and we were surfing into the mid-teens. Then we saw it.
A teardrop-shaped foam imprint appeared on the surface. The residual disturbance in the water was too lifelike to be a wave wake, but way too big to be a dolphin. Morgen and I looked at each other. Did you see that?
WHALE!! A 20-something foot whale appeared off the leeward bow. HEAD UP!!
Morgen was on edge. His rational phobia of whales stems from a catastrophic collision he had with a whale on our Open 60 O Canada. We didn't need another repeat of that...
But this whale we could clearly see. And maybe that made this all worse for Morgen. For about 45 minutes this juvenile fin whale literally played and surfed with Hermes. There may have even been two of them, or it was just one extremely hyperactive whale as this thing was all over the place!
Properly set out to give Morgen a heart attack, the whale weaved from one side of the boat to the other just under the bow like a big dolphin. At times we could see the full bodied whale pick up a surf behind us, then surf down right next to the boat, showing us his white underbelly, potentially attempting to court our sexy-bottomed Hermes.
Once we realized this whale was having too much fun, we had to also enjoy this special moment. It was the most magical experience at sea. To have such a large, majestic creature so interested in you, to appear to want to play, was inexplicably incredible. And like many times at sea, we were at the mercy of Mother Nature, and the best we could do was just enjoy the ride.
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