Yesterday, we had planned the day with Corbin and Ty on the dinghy and hoped for good sea conditions to capture some more footage about the microplastic on the flat surface, but the weather didn’t cooperate and we were faced with choppy waters instead of slicks.
Adam was on deck for his debris watch and shouted “whales!” Everybody joined him and we started to alter our course to get closer. With the dinghy in the water, Corbin, Ty, Adam, and Josh jumped in it with their cameras. We kept radio contact with them to coordinate a parallel approach. Whales breached a few hundred meters in front of us with the sight of dolphins and birds were around them. We kept on moving as we got closer to a couple of them as they stayed vertical with their mouth sticking out of the water. It was an amazing aquatic ballet. Then we passed a smaller one 20 meters off our port side while 3 more slowly swam 100 meters to our bow. A shark passed our port side swimming in the opposite direction. Adam came back on the sailboat and the 3 boys stayed on the dinghy and moved to our starboard side as the whales had switched sides. They were successful in approaching the pod and Josh and Corbin jumped in the water. Suddenly one whale started swimming straight toward our boat, Adam jumped with only one fin on and the rest of his equipment in his hand and dropped in right in front of it. It took me a few extra seconds to get my gear on and before I knew it, it was too late. The whale, Adam, Josh, and Corbin were already too far. The whale stayed with them as if it was posing for the camera, and let them capture this unique moment on video. The next moment, it dove down and disappeared with the rest of the pod.
Today, we came to the realization that we had been very lucky to have had those very calm days in the past and they might not be another opportunity in the future to experience those conditions again. We spent a good part of the day making a list of shots and type of content we have to get and started working on it. We don’t have much time left to capture everything we need, the conditions will get worst as we keep on moving north.
I finished my day with Adam on a watch from 9 pm to midnight. The moon shined a bright light on us from our stern until a squall came and poured rain on Adam. I had gone below to get ready for an Skype interview, good timing
