Day 2 – We are settling in! (Written on Jan 20, 2013)
Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis).
Photo credit M.Jenner
Immediately after our “First-Night-Out-Pasta” (as named for Day 1), served with mounds of grated cheese and rustic baguette accompanied by a rising swell, all the crew collapsed into bed exhausted from their huge first day out. As we approach Cape Naturaliste, the weather forecast indicates more wind and swell, ok – I always seem to be the one with the wobbily watch! As I dreamily step into the wheelhouse for my 12-midnight to 3 am watch, I am suddenly wide awake when I see on the nav computer the ship’s track-line and that about one hour into my watch I will have a 100 degree turn to port. Checking the anemometer and the wind direction gauge I realise this will take us straight into the wind, ho hum, I will again find the pot-holes, as is my way! Also again, I will have to apologize to the crew in the morning! Resty briefs me of passing shipping traffic and I wish him a good night sleep, wondering how well he and Sam will sleep up forward with the possible bouncing.
The night is balmy and I thoroughly enjoy the moonless, but starry-oh-so-starry night sky and with deep fresh breaths filling my lungs I can smell pine trees from the area around Cape Naturaliste, which is about 100 nm south from Perth.
The turn goes smoothly, 9.5 nm around Cape Naturaliste and indeed we are into the wind and the motion has changed, but all is fine. Curt informs me that as soon as we turned, the usual Whale Song “polishing” regime commenced, whereby while trying to sleep involuntary movement back and forth occurs with the pitching of the vessel. Really, the motion is quite ok and we realise that we are very lucky with the comfort especially regarding our course.
Crew assigned the 0630am sunrise visual and acoustic monitoring watches get to work early with binoculars in hand and sonobuoys deployed. We are quickly settling into our “At Sea” routine. Flying fish sightings are coming in from the fly-bridge, Flesh-footed shearwaters identified and dolphin whistles are heard on the systems monitoring the sonobuoys! At 1020 the cry goes up, “We’ve got dolphins on the bow!” Suddenly people are moving to the Portuguese bridge and the side decks cameras at the ready, and of course Skipper was very excited! Small bodied animals, some common bottlenose and others Common dolphins in a pod of approximately 50, spend 20 minutes bow-riding around Whale Song. A photo of a fully airborne dolphin shows the beak and coloration of a Common dolphin, Delphinus delphis. Yahoo, this was exactly what the crew needed, frolicking and bow-riding dolphins to keep them focused and totally interested in all the tasks at hand!
No further cetacean sightings are recorded but the mid-afternoon sillies hit and asking funny questions of the fly-bridge crew such as “Would you like fries with that medium flying fish?” thoroughly confuses them. The fly-bridge crew are certain I have lost my marbles and I think I shall have to agree right there and then!
As we come in from the breezy deck, delicious smells of Restys’ cooking fill the main salon! Yum! Baked salted potatoes, steamed rice, garden salad, vegetables with coconut milk and super spicy pork meat-balls perfectly satisfy the hungry team of 12 as Whale Song makes her way steadily towards the Sub-Tropical Convergence. Fantastic clouds indicate the passage of a front eastward in a few days, but for now they make for an interesting seascape.
What will tomorrow hold? For certain more surprises… will write again tomorrow.
Mich (Written from 34 59.8S 115 53.4E)
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