Whales! Lots of them! Too close for comfort!
At dusk we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a large pod of whales. For at least a quarter of an hour they surfaced and dived as near 100' from Norwegian Steam, often in pairs and in once instance five together. Never in Mexico did I see so many whales anywhere near as close to the boat. Jean, Jon and I stood on deck in awe and wonder. In my case, at least, there was a good admixture of dread. What if one of these leviathans damaged the boat? No repair facilities nearby. Every whale was larger than NS. You could hear them breathing, smell them. Unforgettable!
The next morning we saw two more. This time they were a comfortable quarter of a mile away. These were definitely the same breed. I think they were humpbacks but Jean is not so sure.
We noticed this morning that the sea water is quite a bit colder. We are going to need to dig out warmer clothing.
We ran all night wing-on-wing on the starboard jibe, full main with light yankee poled out. During the night, as expected, the wind continued to veer to the west and then to north of west. In the morning we deployed the port spinnaker pole and jibed around onto port.
At UTC 2200, July 25, 2012, we are at 43 36.993 N, 154 44.489 W. Our Day's run was 98 miles.
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