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Sunday, August 22
Posted Monday Aug 23rd, 9:00 am ET
August 22nd 5:30pm
Geoff
We're in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence right now, and we can actually see from shore to shore. Which means we can see the coast of the Gaspe to starboard, and the north shore of the St. Lawrence off to our portside. It's a great perspective to get a handle on the local geography. We've had a great afternoon, albeit a bit rough. The winds got up to 30 knots plus giving us some good size seas. Some of our group experienced their first "mal-de-mer" which I'm sure they'll look back upon with one day as an "important" part of their experience.
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The highlight of the afternoon was a great show by some Humpbacks! They stayed with us for over an hour as we got some good photo ID's. It turned out the one humpback was named Fleuret, and it is a whale that Richard first saw as a calf in the early 80's. Despite the rough seas we were able to position SEDNA close enough to get some great looks at these gentle giants. In fact, most of the time they were approaching us.
It's been great to see the reaction of the students as they share space with these whales. They are members of a generation of youth, and a larger society for that matter, that are becoming more and more disconnected from the natural world. This experience represents an opportunity to reconnect. The power and beauty of Mother Nature is the something that can reach to our very core. How close did we come to Nature today? Well, does getting covered in whale snot count?!
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This evening as the sun set over the St. Lawrence, we came across more whales. Minkes, Fins and Humpbacks this time. We counted at least 10 Fins, 5 Humpbacks, and 6 Minkes. The Humpbacks put on a great show for us to end our remarkable day. And all around the Humpbacks were little birds called Wilson's Storm Petrels. These tiny little black and white birds actually migrate all the way to Antarctica and back every year! From a research perspective, it was an important discovery to find the whales in the area that we did this evening, since this is a place rarely visited by the researchers due to its distance from shore. So we added a few more small pieces to the puzzle!
It was another great day, and one that we will not forget for a long time. We were privileged to see and experience what we did today…
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Journal Entry (Posted Monday, August 23rd 9:00 am)
Sunday August 22
Lindsay
 After I sat down to write my first journal entry for the website, I realized that this whole thing has got to be a dream or something because here we are, a group of kids, scientists, chaperones, and the coolest crew ever, sailing down the St Lawrence in search of the whales. Now, how incredibly lucky are we?!
We woke up to whales this morning! How sweet is that?! Among the groups of Finbacks and Humpbacks of sometimes nine animals, we could see some mother/calf pairs! Each time we are lucky enough to spot even one of these awesome creatures we are all awe struck enough that we forget all about our cameras and just stare in amazement.
Then I was able to relax for a bit before starting on my whale watch. We came across two Minke whales and two birds on our watch and nearly froze to death from the wind but hey! As Geoff would say, "this is an expedition not a vacation!" We couldn't be too disappointed because the watch before us had whales coming up all over the place! This was an awesome opportunity for us to see how a real marine biologist works; we wrote in a whale log of their location, species, and numbers, and had spotters up on top of our ship, the Sedna, directing the people in the bridge of the direction of any spouters they could see. Richard Sears lent us his experience all day while we were working with the whales, and his dad came to also see these huge creatures.
You know, when I see a big ship I'm expecting it to have a big Pirates of the Caribbean steering wheel. Wouldn't you know it that on the Sedna, there is an awesome example of the type of wheel I'm attempting to describe but the crew hardly ever uses it! This three masted ship is controlled by a tiny little stick that looks like it belongs to a game boy! It's so bizarre! Our captain helped me out and I was able to even steer the Sedna! This trip is so awesome!!!!! Unfortunately, the sea became a little too rough for me and I had to retreat to my room to avoid becoming a little "under the weather". But soon I was up just in time to share some quality time with two and sometimes even three Humpbacks! These guys were giving us quite a show by fluking and tail breaching like crazy! They left us in awe half an hour later and continued on their way.
The chef here on the Sedna is awesome! Every day Lyne tops the last meal, and is always so upbeat about cooking for the 20 of us. Michel is our sails master and has been awesome in teaching us knots and letting me help put up the sails and take them back down! Then there's Guy. This guy is so awesome! He's got to be the absolute coolest captain, because he has begun to pick up words like Sweet! And Wicked! Mario is really cool because he is so smart. He created two difficult games and without even flinching he can solve them in an instant. Benoit is our shy mechanic who has an awesome smile. He is always there to give a hand and make someone laugh. On any other ship we might have to be formal and follow everything in ranks and steps but here everyone is a giant family and it's ok to be goofy. ;]
At our later shift we were lucky and spotted several Humpbacks, Finbacks, and Minkes who cooperated very well and gave us some awesome pictures. Every time we are lucky enough to see the whales we're all still as amazed as the very first time we saw our first whales. That just goes to show how incredible they really are.
One day, maybe even tomorrow, we all will even be given the chance to crawl up the masts to the crow's nest and be able to see an absolute amazing view of the St. Lawrence. But that's another day and as we all have learned on this trip, it's to take it a day at a time. The 2004 SOI Blue Whale Expedition so totally rocks dude!!!!!
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(Earlier daily postings below)
Sunday, August 22
Posted Sunday Aug 22, 4:45 pm ET
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Good morning. Sunshine and blue skies.
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It's 9:45 am and it feels like we already had a full day! We found whales!! Since the whale watches began at 6:00am we've been surrounded by Fin Whales all morning! Lauren has been in charge of our log book so far today and has just reported that we've seen 41 Fin whales, 2 Humpbacks, and 2 Minkes, as well as plenty of harbour porpoises. We're at 50' 01North, and 64' 51 West, which puts us northwest of Anticosti Island. The sun is shining and the encounters we've been having are extraordinary.
At one point, we were simply drifting with the SEDNA and the Fin whales were swimming around us in circles! One of the Humpbacks swam directly underneath our bowsprit with students looking down on it! One of the Fin whales surfaced so close to us that it covered some of us in "whale breath"! We had a Mother and calf sighting, and we had a group of 9 Fins all together. With the morning light and the 20 knot northwest wind, the whale blows have been easy to see. Some have had spectacular rainbow colours in them. We've seen some different behaviours including a few breaths (when the whales jump out of the water) and some speed swimming.
So suffice to say the excitement level has been on high this morning, and despite a few seasick symptoms some of the students are experiencing, everyone is up on deck. We're now heading further west to try and find more whales.
Fin whales (balaenoptera physalus) are the second largest whales in the world, after the Blue Whales. They are a Baleen Whale, also called Rorquals. This family includes Blue, Sei, Minke, Bryde's and Humpback whales. Baleen is an elaborate filtration system in the mouth that serves to filter prey from large volumes of seawater. Baleen consists of several hundred plates that hang down from the upper jaw in two racks, one on each side of the mouth.
Life on SEDNA is just beginning to settle into a routine. All of the students have been assigned to various leadership responsibilities, including Ship Maintenance, Helping in the Galley, Whale Watch, Night Watch, Wildlife Sighting List and Daily Log & Journals.
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Everyone is also learning their nautical terms and the ways of shipboard life. Last night after dinner, one of our crew Michel gave the kids a lesson in knot tying! Ahhhh, the sea life!
Water conservation is another necessity on board, which means short showers, which is great training for the One-Tonne Challenge!! Life on a sailboat reminds us how easy it is too live more simply and in greater harmony with nature. - Geoff
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