A WHALE OF A TAIL TO TELL YOU ‘ALL’.
2/20/2022
It looked to be another beautiful morning as I hoisted the anchor in Santiago Bay, Mexico on Sailors Run, The winds were very light as I sailed off the anchor slowly exciting this beautiful bay on my way back to Barra De Navidade, Mexico. I had just made a course correction heading out towards the Pacific Ocean now just east of the small group of rocks that I would soon be passing on my ports side, when something caught my eye coming towards me on my port side, suddenly there was a huge blast of air when a large humpback whale prepared to sub merge now just 100 yards away, arching its back and diving deep showing off its large tail as it slipped below the surface. I looked on once again with a great appreciation for the sailing life that allows these close encounters with these huge sea creatures. I also made a false assumption that this whale had seen me before diving deep, and nearly a half hour had passed and I had actually forgotten about the whale. I have to admit that I had pondered going below and turning on the stereo and playing music to be heard by this whale or any other whale in my near proximity. This is a trick that Debbie and I used in the Hawaiian waters when sailing through hundreds of whales on passage between the islands and we never had any problems with whales. I knew I had a cd in the stereo below, a Tahitian drumming one but being sure the whale had seen me I assumed I was already on the whale’s radar.
It was over thirty minutes since I had last seen the whale and me and the Sailors Run were just ghosting along at about 2.5 kts. when suddenly much to my surprise I was startled into survival mode by a blast of air as I twisted around shocked to see the huge whale 50 feet astern of me charging along at about 5kts closing on the stern of Sailors Run. I dove below cranking on the stereo and turning the volume to full blast expecting to feel an impact at any second. I climbed back into the cock pit as the Tahitian music blasted out below decks. I looked over the stern and was amazed at what I was witnessing. The whale was twisted hard to its right and was headed deep as its tail broke the surface just missing my monitor wind vane that hangs off the stern of Sailors Run. I can only be grateful for past experience’s that enabled me to avoid this collision and feel the story could save other sailors from dangerous encounters with whales while under sail in an area that is known to have whales present.
Your Amigo EL Jefe’.