Only two hours after my departure from La Gomera I saw a black object not more than 30 meters from the bow. A rock!? I immediately switched off the autopilot and tried to avoid whatever it was I was about to collide with. While doing so, I realized that the possibility of a rock in 2km deep water was very unlikely. When the object was only 10 meters away, just to the left of the bow, I thought it was some kind of huge cylinder. An old sea mine!? When I passed it by, the tip of the approximately 6 to 7 meter long pitch-black object was not more than 3 meters away from me. Then all of a sudden, the object started to move; it was a whale! It slowly lifted its head and (I guess) stared at me. I could not believe my eyes and it felt like I was witnessing the existence of Nessy*. The whole event did not take more than a minute or so. When I looked astern shortly afterwards, I saw the whale still had not moved away from its position, and I could see misty air coming from its blowhole. I have seen whales before, but they would always start to swim away once they feel the presence of a boat. This was the first time I actually saw one that did not bother to move at all. That night my catnaps were even shorter than they usually are..
*The monster of Loch Ness
The following photographs were taken from a passing french yacht, around 200 miles off the coast of Nouadhibou, Mauritania. Other images of the crossing to Cape Verde are with the kind Cape Verdean who stole my camera from the table at a bar in La Palmeira..
