Monday 15th August
Last night after dark the wind increased and turned in our favour, so out came the sails. By the time we reached the point at the top of Fraser Island we were doing 8.50kts. But that wasn’t going to last. As we rounded the top of Fraser the wind began to die. By 1am the wind had dropped to 2.5knts and we were back using the motor. The only thing in our favour now was the tide was running south.
The sea at the top half of Fraser Island is always choppy with a big swell. This is caused by the sea coming up from 4000m to 50m in the space of a few nautical miles.
As we came down the coast of the island we came across several whales and dolphins. The whales were flapping their tails in the air then slapping the water with their tails. A few minutes later they were calmly swimming on the surface. We have seen this behaviour before just before giving birth then swimming along side their calf.
Andrew was photographing the dolphins that were bow riding and jumping out of the water. Suddenly there was a loud deep groan (that drowned out Sue’s “Oh shit”), as a whale surfaced about 10m off the side of Imagine heading the opposite direction to us.
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
Last night after dark the wind increased and turned in our favour, so out came the sails. By the time we reached the point at the top of Fraser Island we were doing 8.50kts. But that wasn’t going to last. As we rounded the top of Fraser the wind began to die. By 1am the wind had dropped to 2.5knts and we were back using the motor. The only thing in our favour now was the tide was running south.
The sea at the top half of Fraser Island is always choppy with a big swell. This is caused by the sea coming up from 4000m to 50m in the space of a few nautical miles.
As we came down the coast of the island we came across several whales and dolphins. The whales were flapping their tails in the air then slapping the water with their tails. A few minutes later they were calmly swimming on the surface. We have seen this behaviour before just before giving birth then swimming along side their calf.
Andrew was photographing the dolphins that were bow riding and jumping out of the water. Suddenly there was a loud deep groan (that drowned out Sue’s “Oh shit”), as a whale surfaced about 10m off the side of Imagine heading the opposite direction to us.
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
