2002
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Ocean Planet Report
Ocean Planet Around Alone Log
Friday, Sept. 20, 2002
11am gmt
pos: 43 55N, 58 56W
Well, one of the things I was dreading turned out to be a great experience. Crossing the legendary Grand Banks, one of the most famous areas of sea life and infamous for storms and lost ships.
The Grand Banks is a vast area of relatively shallow water, where both warm and cold ocean currents meet. The amount of fish here was so vast that they were thought to be impossible to over fish. Of course, over time mankind’s fishing capability became so efficient, with huge dragging nets that could literally sweep the ocean floor, the once unlimited supply of cod now has to be monitored. From what I hear the fish are coming back, though….which is good, I love cod!
We crossed over just the southern part of the banks, entering from the west as night fell. The edge of the ocean shelf where the super deep water (over 10,000 ft!) rises up to only a couple hundred feet. There were several huge fishing ships, as big as freighters, working near the edge of the banks lit up like cities. Fortunately they were mostly fishing on the edge so after I went past them I didn’t have to stay up all night!
The waves were somehow different, and there were birds everywhere. The wind slowly died (as expected) by this morning when we crossed over the eastern edge of the banks. As I went up to take the first reef out of the mainsail, the clanking of the winches as I worked somehow alerted all the dolphins (porpoises?) nearby and they came flying towards Ocean Planet from all directions. They seemed especially happy (they always are) and crowded around the bow to guide us off the banks, or at least just to say hi and do what dolphins do best, have fun. I have been very tired since the start, but there’s no way the dolphins can’t cheer you up, so I spent a while on the bow hooting and talking to them. They like to turn sideways and look at you when you are there.
So I took this little movie and a picture of them for you, enjoy!
I almost forgot that I was out here for a boat race…..
Bruce