Ann's Blog
Terre-de-Haut, Les Saintes:
April 8, 2012:
Day of the Dolphins, Whales, and Wahoo
Our log for last week’s passage from St. Pierre, Martinique, to Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica, is full of exclamation points and words like “WOW!” and “INCREDIBLE!!” It certainly wasn’t because of the sailing: The first half of the 54-mile trip was a lovely beam reach, but then someone pulled the plug on the fan: not even enough breeze for a sail assist during the long motor up the coast of Dominica against 1½ knots of current.
We were off the hook by 0710. Within the first hour, a pod of dolphins came to play briefly in our bow wave. After they headed off to important business elsewhere, an elegant long-tailed tropicbird, one of our favourite seabirds, winged by. For us, two great sightings. Enough to make a passage special. But a couple of hours later, the day got seriously better.
Almost simultaneously, Steve and I spotted two whales steaming our way. We actually had to alter course a full 90˚ to keep from bumping into one of them. It still passed only 30 feet off our starboard side, giving us a great look and making for an easy match with the photos in our whale ID guide: They were short-finned pilot whales. As whales go, this species is on the small side: a mere 13–16 feet long, tipping the scales at only 800–3500 kg. No, of course we didn’t have a camera in the cockpit.
It crossed my mind as they receded out of sight to at least get my little point-and-shoot and leave it outside under the dodger. But whale sightings are so rare….
The humpback breached three more times – high acrobatic leaps, fully exposing its white belly and pectoral fins. Two of the leaps were almost back flips. Okay, we were screaming out loud at this point.
After the third leap, Steve darted below for the camera, and missed the fourth – and final – aerial display. The whale then joined another humpback swimming and blowing on the surface, and the two were soon out of sight.
Nothing happened for the next couple of hours; good thing, since it let my heart rate settle back to normal. Then – cue another spike in heart rate – the high-pitched zing of fishing line being stripped off one of our reels at high speed.
Steve said it felt like a big barracuda. No. Instead, Steve got to cross something off his bucket list. He’d always wanted to catch a wahoo. This one turned out to be 42 inches long.
Our friend Martin (the boatman/guide “Providence”) helped us tie to a mooring off the Cabrits around 5 pm. As we got Receta secured, he sized up the situation and from his pirogue started sponging off the….uh….copious mess from the side of our hull. And then came aboard for a beer as Steve set to work on Mr. Wahoo.
By the time Martin was dispatched with a bag of fillets (and the head) to make dinner for his wife and daughters, and we had the rest of the fish filleted, vacuum-packed, and stuffed into our freezer, and the cockpit cleaned, we were exhausted. Yes, too tired even to cook fresh wahoo for our own dinner.
We’ve been making up for it ever since. What a day.
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Wow! What an exciting time you two have had. A wonderful read. Thanks for sharing…
Congrats upon such a catch too.
Joy
As fish stories go, that whole day was a whopper! An exclamation-point-worthy passage! Sorry we missed you. And the wahoo.
Pat and Geoff
On our way to where you are… Finisterre out of San Francisco, Loved the wahoo story… we are looking forward to more fishing. Currently in BVI on the way to St. Martin…. hope to see you along the way… are fans of your books and reicipes. Curry chicken tonight! Take care,
Kay and Mike Heath
Thanks Ann for the inspiration …upon our return from our first trip to Grenada…we have enjoyed testing out new recipes and recently hosted a slide show/dinner party for 22 close friends.
Island was the dress code, and “limin” was the attitude! Bob Marley set the tone…(and a couple custom c.d’s that Sandy (at the market in St.Georges) made for us! )
BB’qd octopus, marlin (with a julienned cucumber, carrot and mango garnish,) coconut shrimp and rice, and mango chicken was offered. The colorful sides (salads, sweet potatoe /banana casserole etc.) contributed to this incredible, visual feast!
We have already booked for Grenada/Carriacou for next year!