Alan Gomes
Sustaining Partner
My friend and I were having a great sail back from Avalon (Catalina Island) yesterday when we were almost struck by a whale!
My friend was at the helm and I was in the forward part of the cockpit when we both heard what sounded like a very loud snort or expulsion of air off to port. We both turned to see a whale certainly no more than two feet from the port side, slightly aft of mid ships, moving almost perpendicular to our course! Maybe about 15' of its back was out of the water and I believe I could see its blow hole. It was a very dark gray whale and it seemed certain that it was about to t-bone us!
My friend, who doesn't have a great deal of sailing experience, said "Take the helm!" I grabbed the helm from him, though there was nothing I could have done anyway. We expected a crash within seconds but the crash never came. It's clear that the whale must have dove under the boat--though based on how close it was to us and its direction of travel, I'm amazed that it cleared us. We kept looking to see where the whale went but we never spotted it after that.
Well, that scared the #$%%^ out of us! I've been crossing that channel for almost my whole time sailing (49 years) and never had an encounter that close. Before this one, the closest situation of which I am aware is when I happened to glance astern and see a whale traveling eastbound about 50' off of my transom, when I was heading northbound. (Those are the same relative directions as in this case.) That one shook me up too, but that distance was huge in comparison to yesterday's. This guy was so close that I could have easily jumped off of the boat and on to its back!
Well, I hope I'm good for another 49 years before that happens again!
My friend was at the helm and I was in the forward part of the cockpit when we both heard what sounded like a very loud snort or expulsion of air off to port. We both turned to see a whale certainly no more than two feet from the port side, slightly aft of mid ships, moving almost perpendicular to our course! Maybe about 15' of its back was out of the water and I believe I could see its blow hole. It was a very dark gray whale and it seemed certain that it was about to t-bone us!
My friend, who doesn't have a great deal of sailing experience, said "Take the helm!" I grabbed the helm from him, though there was nothing I could have done anyway. We expected a crash within seconds but the crash never came. It's clear that the whale must have dove under the boat--though based on how close it was to us and its direction of travel, I'm amazed that it cleared us. We kept looking to see where the whale went but we never spotted it after that.
Well, that scared the #$%%^ out of us! I've been crossing that channel for almost my whole time sailing (49 years) and never had an encounter that close. Before this one, the closest situation of which I am aware is when I happened to glance astern and see a whale traveling eastbound about 50' off of my transom, when I was heading northbound. (Those are the same relative directions as in this case.) That one shook me up too, but that distance was huge in comparison to yesterday's. This guy was so close that I could have easily jumped off of the boat and on to its back!
Well, I hope I'm good for another 49 years before that happens again!
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