DAKA
Well-Known Member
I had the opportunity to go boating last week in a 4 m Valiant with a 15hp 2t outboard
Good news
Buoyancy aid
Paddle
fuel
lager
coke
sun
Missing
Radar
Plotter
GPS
compass
Charts
VHF
EPIRB
Life raft
Tide tables
Weather forecast
local knowledge
Responsible skipper
Spent 10 minutes listening to instructions in some sort of foreign language including sporadic arm waving about some wary angerous ocks
and decided we best keep at least 1 nm offshore.
I asked my daughter which way she would like to go and she replied
" To find some whales daddy "
'but the whales are in 2500 m deep water about 5 miles offshore'
"yes out there, lets go daddy"
I stored a few transits into my memory to help us find the marina and off we went.
About 1/2 hour later we are surrounded by Dolphins 40-60 from three different pods, leaping from all directions to join us, still not sure if they were playing with us or trying to sink/divert us .
As I turned they all leaped out the water together and swam just in front of us.
We then found 3 whales, bit boring really, mother and child sleeping, father 1/2 asleep , during the night he has to dive 2500 m down to catch squid for the family.
We had to go slow to get close, soon got bored and went to find the Dolphins again, much more fun /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Of course by now all my Transits are well below the horizon but there is a snow covered Volcano to aim at.
Once we were about 3/4 mile off all my transits were visible and we were less than 200m away from our outward bound track.
So close it was spooky, we had been out for 3 hours, presumably moved around by the current and wind , no compass but we had manged to safely navigate back within a cable .
We must have some sort of natural homing device like a homing pigeon .
You can just about make out two dolphins here
Bit of a swell running too.
Still trying to get the best photos downloaded.
Good news
Buoyancy aid
Paddle
fuel
lager
coke
sun
Missing
Radar
Plotter
GPS
compass
Charts
VHF
EPIRB
Life raft
Tide tables
Weather forecast
local knowledge
Responsible skipper
Spent 10 minutes listening to instructions in some sort of foreign language including sporadic arm waving about some wary angerous ocks
and decided we best keep at least 1 nm offshore.
I asked my daughter which way she would like to go and she replied
" To find some whales daddy "
'but the whales are in 2500 m deep water about 5 miles offshore'
"yes out there, lets go daddy"
I stored a few transits into my memory to help us find the marina and off we went.
About 1/2 hour later we are surrounded by Dolphins 40-60 from three different pods, leaping from all directions to join us, still not sure if they were playing with us or trying to sink/divert us .
As I turned they all leaped out the water together and swam just in front of us.
We then found 3 whales, bit boring really, mother and child sleeping, father 1/2 asleep , during the night he has to dive 2500 m down to catch squid for the family.
We had to go slow to get close, soon got bored and went to find the Dolphins again, much more fun /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Of course by now all my Transits are well below the horizon but there is a snow covered Volcano to aim at.
Once we were about 3/4 mile off all my transits were visible and we were less than 200m away from our outward bound track.
So close it was spooky, we had been out for 3 hours, presumably moved around by the current and wind , no compass but we had manged to safely navigate back within a cable .
We must have some sort of natural homing device like a homing pigeon .
You can just about make out two dolphins here
Bit of a swell running too.
Still trying to get the best photos downloaded.
