At Sea
Yogi Berra said, “It is déjà vu all over again.” Today was a Yogi Berra Day. Little did we know when the day started that this day, two days out of the Cape Verde Islands, would provide the same excitement that the Endeavour had here a year ago.
The day did not dawn well. Squall lines appeared in the east and two of them dropped some rain. The morning inspection of the ship turned up a Leach’s storm-petrel hidden under the towel box near the pool. It was released later in the day after its feathers had dried. Others that we had released previously seemed to circle high in the sky as if to get their bearings. This one disappeared into a cloud as it passed from our view on some mission only a storm-petrel would understand.
In the early afternoon, Tim Severin showed us his film that described his exploration of the myth of the white whale made famous by one of America’s greatest writers. His story told in his “In Search of Moby Dick,” ended in Lamalera, Indonesia where one of the last primitive sperm whale hunts still exists. In spectacular footage, we were privileged to see whalers standing on the prows of wooden boats hurling harpoons into the sides of their prey. Often the harpooner ‘polevaulted’ with the harpoon onto the whale’s back ending up in the water next to a fatally wounded and dangerous whale.
The whale theme would continue. At the end of the talk while most were still asking questions, our expedition leader, Bud Lehnhausen, went to the bridge and within minutes spotted a pod of short-finned pilot whales almost in the same location where we had found them last year. With skillful piloting, the Captain brought our ship slowly forward as the whales, more than 50 of them, swam a parallel course. There were a number of big males of 18 feet or so but the bulk of the pod was composed of others of more modest size with a few much smaller young. One animal dubbed ‘double bump’ had no dorsal fin but rather two small bumps fore and aft where the dorsal should have been. Soon a Zodiac was in the water with our video chronicler, Toni Davis, and the splash cam. A resoundingly appreciative audience was held spellbound at recap by the quickly but professionally edited film of the pilot whales. Is it possible we had found the same friendly pod that we had seen in these waters last year?
Yogi Berra said, “It is déjà vu all over again.” Today was a Yogi Berra Day. Little did we know when the day started that this day, two days out of the Cape Verde Islands, would provide the same excitement that the Endeavour had here a year ago.
The day did not dawn well. Squall lines appeared in the east and two of them dropped some rain. The morning inspection of the ship turned up a Leach’s storm-petrel hidden under the towel box near the pool. It was released later in the day after its feathers had dried. Others that we had released previously seemed to circle high in the sky as if to get their bearings. This one disappeared into a cloud as it passed from our view on some mission only a storm-petrel would understand.
In the early afternoon, Tim Severin showed us his film that described his exploration of the myth of the white whale made famous by one of America’s greatest writers. His story told in his “In Search of Moby Dick,” ended in Lamalera, Indonesia where one of the last primitive sperm whale hunts still exists. In spectacular footage, we were privileged to see whalers standing on the prows of wooden boats hurling harpoons into the sides of their prey. Often the harpooner ‘polevaulted’ with the harpoon onto the whale’s back ending up in the water next to a fatally wounded and dangerous whale.
The whale theme would continue. At the end of the talk while most were still asking questions, our expedition leader, Bud Lehnhausen, went to the bridge and within minutes spotted a pod of short-finned pilot whales almost in the same location where we had found them last year. With skillful piloting, the Captain brought our ship slowly forward as the whales, more than 50 of them, swam a parallel course. There were a number of big males of 18 feet or so but the bulk of the pod was composed of others of more modest size with a few much smaller young. One animal dubbed ‘double bump’ had no dorsal fin but rather two small bumps fore and aft where the dorsal should have been. Soon a Zodiac was in the water with our video chronicler, Toni Davis, and the splash cam. A resoundingly appreciative audience was held spellbound at recap by the quickly but professionally edited film of the pilot whales. Is it possible we had found the same friendly pod that we had seen in these waters last year?
