After seeing some whales in Tonga, I realized we had never written up the infamous but not forgotten whale encounter, which happened on our 3000 plus mile trip from the Galapagos to the Marquises. It was a lovely slow sailing day under spinnaker with flat seas doing 5-6 knots; I was enjoying the smooth ride by sleeping while Liz was on watch. I was awakened by a lot of screaming, it seems we were sailing into a large pod of whales sleeping on the surface. While I slept, Liz had been pounding on the hull and had emptied an air horn canister on both me and the whales trying to wake us up. It didn't work well for either of us, but I finally got the idea and stumbled up to the cockpit in a stupor asking if she wanted a camera for the whales, No! she hollered, just turn the boat. She was still up on the bow trying to wake the whales with little success. As I looked around there was little I could do since there were whales on both sides with no room to turn. There were 5-6 whales around the boat and about 40-60 ft. long and I thought we just might steer through them when one of the crowd made a left turn just in front of the boat. We just had enough time to realize what was happening when we hit him broadside, mid whale. The boat shuddered very slightly as it rode up the whale as he slid off the port side. He appeared unhurt and didn't even seem to wake up except he decided to defecate in one gigantic whoosh, with a smell that had to be experienced to be believed. The side of the boat was covered with whale poo, which we are still trying to clean off. I was concerned the pod may consider this an attack and come after us with a vengeance, but nothing happened. So that's the whale encounter, no one hurt, one dirty boat and a whale with the s--- knocked out of him.
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