Wet Seas and a Whale
Saturday, September 04, 2004
N 39o 11’, W 129o 09’
300 Miles to San Francisco
As predicted, the seas have been rough, causing Lillian to pound heavily, sometimes accompanied by a deluge of salt water in the cockpit. But other than that, the going has been good, although slow, and we are within 300 miles of the coast. With winds somewhere over thirty knots, we are plodding along with the storm jib and a double reef in the main.
In anycase, the weather is subordinate to our main excitement of the day, which was that Peter sighted our first whale. Seeing a whale is something we have hoped for since first setting out across the Pacific back in March. Fortunately the whale reappeared. When first sighted, he was over fifty yards away, but then purposefully swam over to within 10 yards or us, obviously interested in what strange sort of creature we might be. The gray dorsal fin and part of his back was just visible above the waves alongside. It was difficult to judge his length, but he was probably 2/3rd’s as long as Lillian. After a minute or less of swimming next to us, we apparently proved to be of little interest, as he subsequently vanished below the surface, not to be seen again.
