Blue Whales and the Straits of Gibraltar

After five monotonous sea days on the cruise ship, Vision of the Seas, we made land in the Azores Islands. We disembarked as quickly as we could…and boarded a smaller boat.

Blue Whale

The Futirisimo took us on our quest for dolphins and whales. I can’t say it was the best whale watching experience I’ve ever had (I’m not sure anything will beat the first time we went off the coast of Ecuador), but we did get to see a mighty Blue Whale.

Very few people have seen a Blue Whale, the largest creature in the animal kingdom (seriously, they weigh two tons at birth). Other than the first six months of life when mama and baby are together they generally travel alone, they don’t stay on the surface very long, and their dives last several minutes so you don’t know where or when they will surface again. And they’re protected so you can’t get very close. Blue Whales are blue, but they are also spotted. Their spot patterns are all different, so they are uniquely identifiable. Scientists on board our ship took pictures of this guy (or girl, can’t tell them apart), and will compare them to pictures taken off the coast of Africa and the North Atlantic, around Iceland. This information will be used to track migration habits.

Sequence
Sequence

On day 11 of the cruise, boredom completely set in. We found a 300 piece puzzle to work on, and continued our marathon Sequence games.

During the night before the final sea day, our smooth sailing luck ran out. The water was dark and roiling when we ventured out for breakfast. Our clear blue skies were a thing of the past. The ship rocked from side to side and front to back. You could sense the power in the waves, but watching them was still mesmerizing. The swells were only 10 – 12 feet, so at least there was no fear of being seasick. It was just really hard to walk a straight line.

We got up at 2am the morning we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. We couldn’t really see anything other than lights, but we enjoyed the experience. There were others who got up as well, so we had company. I had people downloading the Pocket Earth app onto their phones once they realized how useful it is.

We went back to bed after we passed into the Mediterranean for another 2 hours of sleep. For the next three days we get to get off this slow boat!