Raritan - 12/6/18 – Day 12 – No more squalls (so far) and our first whale sighting

We had one or two squalls late last night with rain and wind. The bigger challenge, though, has been the sea state. We’ve had a big sea on the starboard quarter since yesterday morning, but it has been accompanied by strange large waves that are hitting us almost broadside. They make it very difficult to steer, especially in the dark. Tough weather helm instantly becomes very strong lee helm and it’s a challenge not to bear off too far. As Matt noted, we were all happy when our overnight watches were over and even happier once the sun rose and made it easier to see. Even with the daylight, we are rocking pretty consistently to port and starboard through 15-20 degrees. We are having to be very careful walking around both below and on deck to avoid falling.

Late this morning we also saw our first whale. I initially saw a big brown creature following about 100 feet behind us in our wake. My first thought was that it might be a shark, but after watching it for a few minutes, we saw it take a breath and its relatively small dorsal fin. Ian confirmed that it was a Minke whale. We really enjoyed watching it swim around the boat and tracking it as it would dive and disappear only to reappear in a new spot a few minutes later. It even turned sideways to show us its belly. My guess is that it was at least 20 feet long and it was clearly capable of much faster speeds than the 7-9 knots we’re making.

As of 1620 GMT, we are 956 nautical miles from St. Lucia and moving at about 7-8 knots in 18 knots of breeze from 064. Our heading is ~288, while St. Lucia lies at 270. We are all hoping the wind velocity holds, but our weather report suggests we may see lighter winds on Saturday and Sunday. We are also hoping the seas are less confused tonight than last night.

Rob