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| Varuna: Sea Life |
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Out here there is a lot going on. We are seeing hundreds of birds. They are gliding just a few centimeters over the waves or sitting in groups on the water and seem to enjoy their life out here in the middle of nowhere. The only thing disturbing them in their daily life these days is the grey monster crossing through their meetings. Sometimes they seem to be confused about this unusual guest in their middle. They look at the big grey unknown stranger and then try to escape by paddling with the small feet they got... but the grey thing is too fast so that they have to interrupt the daily routine and fly away. Sometimes at night they get caught windward of our kites by doing that. Their relatives on land know that from public buildings like train stations. When they enter them by mistake they get imprisoned behind the big windows not realising that they can't get through these things built by the human beings modificating their natural surroundings. Although the folks here at sea are not used to us as an entry to their world of peace they stay cool and are really quiet. Usually they don't make any noise. Whenever we see whales out here - which we do every day for the last days - there are these little birds around. Guegi thinks they are friends and always stay together. We are not sure, maybe someone of you guys can check that out for us. Back to the whales: We had to take point charly earlier in the race. This imaginary mark was set by the race comitee to keep us out of an area were they think a lot of whales are living. Interestingly we noticed that we did not see any whale close to this area. Since we passed point charly though we met whales every day. A few days ago two of them went paralell to us for a while and then diving on their back underneath the boat. When they do that you can see their white bottom. They are very elegant and friendly looking animals jumping with the waves showing us their black and white bodies. When they come up to the surface, spraying out the water the smell is really bad. But we are not complaining. Out here we are the strangers and they have their natural home here. A few hours ago, a mile in front we saw two whales jumping high out of the water. While the boys on deck were watching them and trying to catch a pic, a whale jumped out of the water just a boat lenght in front of us. The boys on deck felt an adrenalin rush. A crash with a whale is for both parties a really bad thing we try to avoid. Not sure about the other side. That for we sleep in our bunks with the head facing to the stern. In case we crash anything floating in the water we dont get smashed against the wall behind the bunks. Apart from the whales and birds we see dolphins and sometimes sharks. The dolphins play for a few moments with the boat and the orange torpedo underneath us and the disapear as fast as they arrived. Yesterday we met a big bird invented by the human some time ago interrupting the quiet atmosphere of the ocean and the sound of the rushing water under the hull. We heard the noise of a motor in the distance and suddenly on the clear sky a small propelled airplane passed close to windward and disappeared again. Apart from that there is a relaxing and never ending surrounding out here only limited by the horizon. A very nice and calm side of the North Atlantic. |
