In Search of Whales

Before leaving the UK, I had discovered that the area between Grand Turk and the Dominican Republic is a hotspot for viewing humpback whales. These massive animals migrate here from New England to calf and mate, with the unsurveyed Silver Bank being a prime calving ground. They can also be watched displaying and breaching off Samana, Dominican Republic, and on migration back north from the beaches of Salt Cay, Turks and Caicos. The literature suggests that our planned arrival of mid-February would catch the tail end of the season, so my hopes were realistically low for our crossing now in mid-March.

We had managed to sail for ten hours from supper last night until the early hours, but the wind remains light and the seas calm. We were running about 5nm south of Silver Bank and saw a small boat heading south from the Bank. I surmised it may have been whale watching and persuaded James to approve a course change directly for the bank. I had little hope of seeing anything, but James was game to run a few miles over the bank as the sun was high and we had the best chart of the area.

I was watching for shallows and coral heads when I saw a plume of water some miles off our starboard bow. Through the binoculars, I could see the spouts of breathing whales. We altered course directly towards them, slowing as we approached. There were at least four animals in the pod but possibly several more as they would surface to breathe and then sink below the surface. Their distinctive humped backs were very obvious with each breath, hence their common name. We dropped out of gear and held off a few hundred metres away and watched as they started to display. One animal breached, leaping almost clear of the water with just its tail flukes remaining submerged. Another breached and then we watched the classic fin waving and tail slapping that these whales are famous for. We stayed for some time before choosing again to move on. We saw another two groups of whales from a distance during our passage off the banks but none allowed us so close as this first pod.

We can see cirrus cloud ahead of us and this should herald the expected cold front. Brisk winds are forecast as the front passes but it should leave us to broad reach in 15-20kts of wind all the way up the Bahamas in its wake. James and I are now settled in a three hour watch system and I feel much less tired today than yesterday, now my body is again used to sleeping with the motion at sea. I retire shortly after supper leaving James on watch until 10pm. I then cover until 1am, then James and finally me again from 4am. The children were given a project to make and colour a paper fort today and then spent the afternoon watching the whales and "Mamma Mia."