Dolphins, Pilot Whales and Petrels

21 April 2013

After a prosperous start from Tristan the wind is finally decreasing. We almost have all the rigging up. Our average speed of 7 knots is decreasing rapidly. As a present we just saw a couple of dolphins and pilot whales. After a quick look in the biology books there turned out to be Pygmy killer whales and short-snouted spinner dolphins.
For now it’s waiting for an increase in wind and of course some more presents of nature.
Some impressions by Alice:
“Early Thursday morning, during the night watch, the magical moment occurred. Out of the ocean a mountain arose, Tristan da Cunha! Early rays of sun made for a red sky. An hour later the island disappeared behind a cloudy sky. Later that day it became clear we could not reach the little harbour due to high swells. We anchored close to the village so we could take a look at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. We prayed for better weather conditions the next day. Unfortunately strong winds and high swells made it impossible for the Tristanites to pick us up with their dinghy. We could not make it to shore but we could see the island when we sailed around it. A rough coastline with high cliffs and only a small patch of inhabited land. We could also see lots of birds like a kind of sea swallow and the common diving petrel. With their quick flapping wings they fly just above the waves and sometimes dive into the water.
It’s such a shame we could not go to Tristan to visit the grave of Pieter Groen, a Dutch man who was shipwrecked here in 1836 and got married to a Tristan girl. He lived on Tristan until 1902. I would have loved to see the museum and have met the local people (only 262 people live there). But we had to go on and luckily we had a beautiful day of sailing of Friday. With 4 Bft and the sun was shining the whole day. Dolphins visited us and played along the bow. The situation was so completely different then around Tristan!
We also had the day of (once every 3 days you are off for 12 hours). And what do you do on this off-day? A bit of sleeping, sitting in the sun outside and enjoy the view, think about people at home, talk to someone, reading etc. Some of us sort out photos on their laptop or watch a movie. There are also a few that dare to climb the rigging to make pictures. If you want you can join in to a study of a Czech student. Because he is so nice and enthusiastic, most of us fill the questionnaires, that originally where meant for Russian astronauts. We are suitable for the study because our special circumstance (five weeks in a row on a sailing ship on the ocean). The questionnaires are long and it takes us days to fill them in because the questions are vague and in difficult English. Even our English guest has trouble figuring out the questions.”
(to be continued)