18°49' N
49°43' 30" W
0700 UT
28.2.08
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this evening after dinner, i was playing 'andy's tune' sitting on top of the saloon there. half watching the sunset. minding my own business and was half absent-mindedly staring off the starboard side of the boat, when the surface of the water broke and this rather large thing kind of flopped its way upward and then sort of slid back into the sea. it was a ways away and was pretty big, or must have been. for the distance i judged it to be from the boat, i reckon it was out of the water and at least as tall as half our mast, if not as tall. probably as much distance as the maryland bridge is long, but a even little further off than that. the first time i saw it i was all curious and then just sort of kept playing. saw the thing jump maybe 4 or 5 more times. it cleared the water, but this wasn't a dolphin. we've had dolphins before. this one was rather large, and went nose first out. a big blunt sort of not pointy at all nose. sometimes almost all the way out. splashy splash, and then slid back into the water. too far away to see what kind of tail. not so much splash going back in.

i thought about getting:
-someone else
-the excellent binoculars
-the toy camera
-maybe a less of a toy camera

and decided instead that i should extend richard's solo-in-absentia as it was feeling good and funky and was just having a whale of a good time. ar ar. i didn't want to disrupt anything by trying to document anything. photos of that kind of thing rarely measure up to the memory part anyhow.

i do realize that we were moving forward but thing was far enough away that we were't actually passing it quickly or anything. in the next song, i kept an eye peeled. the following song i thought, oh, i should look aft slightly as we are moving forward (and i think at the time doing about 9 knots, so at a decent clip). perhaps this one likes andrew ross, i thought and dug out the sew buttons tune. as i have never been forced to sing that one at gunpoint or anything*, the beginning of the third verse rather eludes me. this is why we have singers in the world. or one aspect of why: the singer person remembers words. regardless, no more fishy.




*like that would help.