Whale's ahoy

Friday 2nd July

Location: On route to Monsterrat

Having checked out of St.Barths yesterday, and spent the afternoon and evening back in Columbia Bay, we set sail at 6:30 this morning. The plan was to sail to Nevis, but if the wind was good we would sail on as far as Monsterrat. I made a bunch of salad wraps for the trip, knowing I would be unable to prepare food below while underway. It was a good job I did, as the trip (for me) was grueling. We had between 24 – 30 knot winds, and rough seas. I spent the first part of the trip below rolling around the bed trying to sleep, eventually the heat got the better of me and I ventured up on deck where I slept on and off for the better part of the 12 hours it took us to reach Monsterrat.
As we approached the island Edi spotted a whale, it was basking just off our starboard side, it was possible that if Edi hadn’t spotted it we may well have run into it. We passed by so close we could almost have reached over and touched it. Startled by us the whale turned and swam away, Bob turned the boat to follow it and I grabbed my camera. We followed it for about 10 minutes, then Edi spotted 2 more whales. It was almost 6pm and we needed to anchor before dark so we turned and headed back to the island and dropped anchor in Little Bay. I cooked pork tenderloin for dinner and we watched the program ‘Life’ on tv before going to bed.
It was a terrible night, the boat rocked violently, so I spent all night just trying not to roll out of bed, and to add insult to injury there was a bar in the bay playing very, loud very bad music, all night long, I got no sleep at all, and eventually got up at 4:45.