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C’était surprenant. Nous les avons vu a environ 200m venir directement vers nous. Ils sont arrivés sous le bateau faisant constamment leur bruit sonore (peut-être ils essayaient de parler avec notre bulbe?!) Puis, il est arrivé quelque chose que je n’avais jamais vu, deux d’entre eux ont fait un ‘headstand’ – ils se sont mis a la verticale avec la tète en bas. J’ai déjà lu que parfois ils font cela mais je ne l’avais jamais vu, c’était génial. C’était à ce moment que Boris et moi nous nous sommes déstressés de notre situation. Nous avons décidés que les choses n’étaient pas si mal après tout et que nous allions prendre le reste de la journée d’une façon beaucoup plus calme. Peu de temps après nous nous sommes retrouvés à la côte sud du détroit ouest, un endroit ou PERSONNE ne va car normalement il n’y a jamais de vent. Mais pour nous, on a retrouve une petite brize qui nous a permis de hisser le spi, de naviguer contre le courant et enfin sortir de notre galère. A la fin, les baleines-pilotes ont réussit à retirer les points négatifs de la colonne noire dans ma tète à des points positifs dans la colonne blanche. |
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These whales are so named because the old mariners used to watch them lead ships in and out of ports all the time... This was very cool; we saw them from about 1000 yards, coming straight for us.They arrived under the boat, sounding constantly with their sonar, (maybe trying to communicate with the keel bulb :-) Then, something i never have seen before, a couple of them did headstands under water, next to the boat. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get a good picture of this... I have read about this, but have never seen it before, it was awesome to see! It was at this point that Boris and I relaxed quite a bit about our situation. We decided that maybe things weren't so bad after all and that we would take the rest of the day as it came, no stress.
Shortly thereafter, we ended up on the southern side of the western Straits, a place NOBODY sails because normally there is no wind, but for us, we had a nice little breeze which allowed us to set the kite, sail against the current, and finally finish our ordeal. In the end, the whales turned one mark in the black failure column to a white positive. Maybe in retrospect, they were living up to their pilot reputation, trying to communicate with us: "Calm down you silly guys, does this headstand make you laugh? The wind will be here shortly and you can be on your way!" We are now reaching along, concentrating on getting some rest, and have prepared the boat for the frontal passage ahead.Thank goodness for little grey whales in my black and white world.
- Ryan
