Aug 26, 2014
Sailing through the night on a calm, starlit ocean over the course of the midnight hours, I was able to thoroughly check my eyelids for leaks. I can hereby, hithertofore and underwith report, that there are none!
Just after 6am, a singleton humpback whale delighted the bleary-eyed crew (those with only one coffee in hand). It was clearly exhibiting A-grade knurdling behaviour and was in such a knurdling state, (as described by Rowdon et al.), that Curt had to deviate our good ship Whale Song five degrees, to account for this playful potato. Oh shame, don’t get me thinking about potatoes… ‘What no potato?’ I exclaimed to the guy filling the veggie shelves… Hmm, life without potatoes for the next week, what kind of a ship do they think we are trying to run? We will make it I suspect, only just. Perhaps by a whisker with our back-up, reserve and back-up/back-up, super abundant rice supply!
Gusty easterlies are sending us home with beautiful sploshing waves – what are waves?
From our Broome visit, I was soberly reminded that as humans, whilst we cling to the land, even desiring to dominate by paving paradise – in the end, Nature will always win. This is the correct order. My mango thingy was almost pindaned… Simply Nature having her say! Travelling the high seas we are totally subject to Nature every moment of our journey. We are always posing and querying a suite of questions, such as What is the tide doing?, Where does that current flow?, and What is the forecast for wind strength in this area? We are subject to the weather, for which I am grateful. Today, we have lovely waves. They are pretty, gurgling, sloshing and sploshing and luckily on our stern quarter. Where, oh where is the flat table top Kimberley sea, to which we have become accustomed the last few weeks?
We enjoyed lunch of bbq beef salad and bbq’d tuna sandwiches with mayonnaise and lettuce, and welcomed watermelon to cool us in the warm afternoon. The easterlies are bringing warm air from the land 62 nautical miles inshore, and despite moving southward, the ambient air actually feels warmer than we have encountered recently. Maybe we were just very busy and didn’t notice the warmth up north!
By mid-afternoon, we negotiated the highway of ships moving to/from Port Hedland, transporting iron-ore around the world. I am worried our Earths’ axis will be significantly altered, particularly due to the sheer volume of rocks exported from Port Hedland and Dampier alone. Dale counted 60 ships in Port Hedland showing on the AIS at jetties and on the move. We slowed to let a laden vessel pass across our route, might is always right in these situations!
A Lesser Frigate bird carefully examines our fishing lure and towed array!
Almost all of the migrating humpback whales are inshore and not flopping and flapping out here, they prefer to trundle southwards closer to shore. Basically, the females determine and drive the location of the southern migration along the coast. Cows with calves choose calm, protected waters away from searching killer whales. Males seeking successful females then also travel inshore following the cow/calf pairs. So, inadvertently, by desiring to protect her calf, the bulk of the migration follows the path taken by the mothers, into protected waters. And thus the northern and southern migration paths display distinct temporal and spatial differences.
A frigate bird, three in fact, flew overhead to check our fishing line and the towed array, both streaming from our stern. This seemed to keep them entertained swirling above us, peering down into the water for at least 15 minutes. The white markings on the underside of the birds’ bellies and armpits differentiate between three species, particularly shown on the females. With careful examination of the bird book, I believe we saw Lesser Frigates. They glide gracefully, beautifully and effortlessly on the thermals.
“Squid a la Resty” is our dinner treat, chilli squid as well as fried squid rings with Resty’s super-special sauce on top with steamed jasmine rice and fresh lettuce salad laced with basil! Yummm!
We are headed home and accounting for our fuel very carefully, as we come. If you see Whale Song paddling into Fremantle, this is real and not an illusion! Come and help!
Looking forward to seeing our girls,
Mich
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