Kirsten and I had a sailing lesson today and expected to just go through our normal practice for tacking, jibing, man-overboard and other basics.
On the way out to sea, the 3 of us on the boat were discussing that it had been a slow year for whales (they’re generally around Dec-Mar), and that we’d hoped to see some eventually while out on the boat.
About 30 minutes into our trip, Kirsten saw one breach and dive about 100 yards away. He came up a second time, which is when she snapped the picture you see here
We didn’t see him for a while, but then we had something really cool happen.
It was a calm day and the boat was slow and quiet, and it turned out we could hear the whale songs even while sitting on the boat. Our instructor has sailed for years and said she’d never heard them while out of the water. A couple different times, we could hear him “singing”, each time for about 15 seconds.
Finally, we started to head back to the harbor, and heard the whale surface behind us and blow, saying “farewell” and letting us get one final look at him.
As icing on the cake, we were walking to our car back at the harbor and saw this 100-lb. shark caught by a fishing boat.
Shark – it’s what’s for dinner
No deep thoughts with this, but it’s amazing how different life is now. Even after 8 months here, I still get blown away by stuff like this a few times a week.
Bonus: A few other sailing pictures below
The “Mahina Pua” – 20-ft sailboat we use
I’m on a boat!