Sailing!

Whilst sailing I have had the privilege of seeing some incredible sights.  During the sail they open up the bow of the ship (that is the front for none sailing types).  It is wonderful to stand at the front of the ship and feel the wind blowing in your face.  As you look down you see the ship crashing through the waves.  As the ship goes into the waves it creates a wake of white spray just in front of the ship.  This spray creates beautiful little rainbows as the sun shines through the water droplets.  Every so often out of the spray will jump over ten flying fish.  These fish flick their tail side to side to generate enough energy to 'jump' out of the water, where the glide above the surface ahead of the ship.  Once in a while the ship crashes down in to the crest of a wave creating a larger splash and water comes flying upwards towards those of us still stood at the front of the bow, but it's a small price to pay for being able to experience these things!

As a young child I loved dolphins, I adopted one and read all I could about them, I knew hundreds of facts about the different species, their sociology and habits (alas I can't remember any of this now apart from that pink river dolphins exist but that is not so useful!).  Anyway whilst I had seen dolphins in sealife centres, and had fed them at seaworld, my desire was always to see them in the wild.  The beauty in these creatures was not in seeing them cooped up in small tanks performing the same show day in day out, but was in seeing these animals in their natural habitat, playing and enjoying being in the open ocean.  During the sail I have been blessed to see many wild whales and dolphins.  Depending on when you see them they can either be playing and swimming with the ship, or you can see the jumping and playing as they pass the ship.  My favourite moment was watching a pod jumping and dancing alongside the ship, particularly as the jumped in time with each other, with some baby dolphins alongside the larger ones.

 

 

(Pictures by Daniel Um)

We have also sailed past an incredible water spout.  These are similar to tornadoes, but they are slightly less powerful and occur over water.  For me this was extremely exciting, to see such power and occurrences that we cannot create or recreate for our pleasure.  Something that we just have the opportunity to observe and marvel at.

(Pictures by Daniel Um)

 There have also been some amazing sunrises and sunsets.