Except for birds, we have seen very little wildlife on our sea passages – until today.

I didn’t meet our first guest, and I’m kind of glad about it. I emerged from napping down below at around 11am and Will told me we’d had a visit from a very large, very nosy shark that swam off our starboard beam for a few minutes. Eeek! I mean, I know they’re out here, but the idea of the big ones still freaks me out. I’m betting they’re probably not as dog-like as our pals in Fakarava…

Our second visitor was impossible to miss. We stare at waves all day long and normally see nothing, so it was a bit of a shock to see a giant shape and fin in a wave following Hydroquest’s path. Another shark? No, this was a medium-sized, light-colored whale. It sped down the wave and came up on our port side, no more that 15 feet away from the boat. It swam with us and under us, alternating from our port to starboard side, for about 15 minutes. It was quite exhilarating to be out in the middle of the ocean with this beautiful creature checking us out! Although it seemed to be a friendly whale, it was getting alarmingly close so it was partially a relief when it lost interest and glided off. A cool experience to say the least.

That was our 20 minutes of excitement for the day. The conditions have been lovely for the past 24 hours – fair winds and following seas.

xoxo

Current position
17 27 S
156 59 W
290 T (course way off right now, we need to jibe – should be heading 240) avg 6.0 knots
wind 13 E