Can you close your eyes and return to a favorite sailing trip? One that was so inspiring that you feel like you are back there? I had a trip like that in early December.
It started out without much fanfare. An easy start out of the slip, sails went up quickly and smoothly, a little cool, then right into the channel. The Wave Walker was doing the job she was designed to do. She came smoothly out of Fiddlehead into that channel like she always does. Then just past West Bay Marina, 10 minutes out, this trip became a memorable one for me.
I saw a spout spewing vertically from the surface of the water. I just had to see what it was. As I approached, I saw the source of the water spout, a gray whale, 25 to 30 feet long, complete with barnacles! That whale performed its magic for about the next hour, rolling up to show its back, spewing a fountain of water, then plunging back into the depths of the Sound. While the whale had his breakfast, I drank in the beauty of it all. Both of us continued until we were satiated.
The whale was gone as quickly as it had come. I returned to the crisp cold wind of a sailing trip I will remember for years.
The trip that day was short in time, not more than three hours, but the memories will last a long time, maybe forever. When I am not able to go out on the water for one reason or another, I close my eyes and live this one over again.
Debbie Behre
I am betting her memories last forever. I remember well every whale I have met. Ed.