Whale collision...

neakameni

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Hi !

here are some pictures of my meeting with a whale on my way back from Azores to Gibraltar...

http://picasaweb.google.com/amcmarine/WhaleCollision

"hopefully" the junction between steel & lead has been dammaged "instead" of the junction between the hull & the keel
the speed was about 6kt, smooth sea & light wind, Nea-Kameni was under spinnaker :she stopped completely as I was inside,
I just heard something like a "sonar" just before the "bang".

for the JAC 2008 the adventure was on the way back for some of us
I was very lucky

see you soon
Dominique / Nea-Kameni
 

Gargleblaster

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Dominique,

I would be interested to know if you had your depth sounder on at the time. I have sailed amongst whales quite a lot, including a pod of 5 Sperm Whales on the way back from Praia but fortunately never hit any. But I do have my depth sounder on all the time because it runs off the same switch as my log.

My wife and I had drinks aboard a Najad 49 belonging to a German/Austrian couple completing a world circumnavigation at Angra do Heroisme. Harald was an electronics engineer and stated quite confidently that while you have your depth sounder on the whales know you are there, without it their sonar is not as accurate as dolphins. He in fact runs two depth sounders constantly at 200Mhz and at 150Mhz.

John Apps
'Glayva'
 

jesterchallenger

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That's an interesting theory. I sailed into a pod of whales at night (probably about ten of them), I was woken by their underwater squeaks and whistles, and they played around and under the boat for about half an hour. I don't know what species they were (it was dark), but the phosphorescence as they swam indicated that they were too large for Pilot whales, but not as big as Sperm whales. They seemed to enjoy diving under the boat as close as possible and swimming right alongside, but never even brushed the hull. All the while there was a lot of whale chatter between them. It was a most amazing display, not in the least intimidating despite their huge size compared to the boat. Having a long keel, I had no worries about that aspect but did wonder if they might clout the Hydrovane self steering rudder - in the end my fears were groundless and eventually they tootled off into the Atlantic night, still chattering to each other! It never occurred to me that the echosounder (permanently on) might or might not attract/deter them. On two other occasions during the Challenge I had a pod of whales swim towards the boat, as if coming over to investigate, so perhaps the echosounder alerted their curiosity.
 

neakameni

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Hello

yes my depth sounder was on, as it's a dual sounder & loch.

I asked a cetacean specialist, who answered that whales use to have some "nap" about 20 minutes on surface and sometimes they may not "hear" a sailboat approaching.
I think she detected me just before, but to late

here a video of some interesting cetacean I saw in this -so windy- morning !
You have to guess the name, sex & age /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=-4166533608806518039&hl=fr

Dominique / Nea - Kameni
 

Gargleblaster

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[ QUOTE ]
here a video of some interesting cetacean I saw in this -so windy- morning !
You have to guess the name, sex & age

[/ QUOTE ]
Their names are Oscar and Olivia one is male and the other female the male is 18 years old and the female 22. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I am interested that your depth sounder was on; it may blow my Austrian friend's theory out of the water. But then you were probably going so fast that the whale did not have time to wake up after it heard your depth sounder.
 
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