Whales

We awoke this morning to what has now become a familiar call of whales. To starboard this time. We have been seeing whales or whale spouts for a couple of days. This morning brother Bob was finishing his 0600 to 0900 watch and I was coming on deck for my watch. We have been motor sailing all night in light NE winds of 8 kts. The sky was cloudy with slate gray clouds on the horizon creating clear backdrop where the sea meets the sky. Perfect for spotting whale spouts reaching into the sky. Bob spotted 3 or 4 spouts and they were large and well defined indicating big whales. They were too far in the distance to see the backs but no doubt these whales were as big as busses. They swam in a parallel course to ours and we watched them for a few minutes before they eventually sounded. Sighting a whale or a whale spot is a big thing these days as we slowly make way to Lisbon now 425 nm ahead. We went back to sailing, reading and today’s simple breakfast of piping hot oatmeal. It was a chilly morning and seemed a good choice. Yesterday Bobby cooked up some scrambled eggs, bacon, fried potatoes with onions, finished off with some cinnamon bread Mia bought at the farmers market before we left St Augustine.

We declared yesterday the official day Orion’s Light stumbled on migratory pods of whales heading east. We were seeing spouts more and more regularly on both side of the boat as the day wore on. On one sighting they were less than 400 yards away and we could clearly see three whales as they arose to the surface took their signature breath and slowly slid below the water showing the length of their backs. they repeated this 3 or 4 times as they slowly swim to their natural cadence. They are truly majestic and a sight that will not easily be forgotten. After they have gathered enough air swimming near the surface they rose to the surface one more time with their flukes rising out of the water to gather enough energy and angle to sound deep in search of what we presume to be food. We continue on not likely to see the pod on the surface for an hour or more, if at all.