Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
too westerly, and early one morning before the sun rose, we had a close call and a unique
experience that still has us puzzled today.
Frankly, we had become blasé about keeping watch at night. Whoever happened to be
awake at the time would pop his head out and have a look about. We slept lightly and were
easily alerted. That particular morning we were both sound asleep however, when I heard a
distinct thump on the hull. I awoke immediately and lay there wondering if I had imagined
it. No, there it was again. In fact several thump thump thumps! “Gavin?” I called out, “is
that you?”
There was no answer. Gavin was still asleep. I leaped out of my bunk and, sliding the
companionway hatch open, I stepped quickly outside. It was dark but I heard the sound of
splashing and heavy breathing. For a moment I could not figure out what it was. Then sud-
denly I knew; there was a huge school of dolphins all swimming around and about Déjà
vu! I was quite stunned by their action. Usually they were playful and would be showing
off and leaping out of the water and just plain having fun. In the dark predawn now, they
looked all serious and were worrying around Déjà vu in a weird manner. I called down to
Gavin who soon came up on deck. “What's wrong?” he asked sleepily, “Oh dolphinages
are here again, but why are they swimming around and around the boat like that?” He no-
ticed it as well.
Why also had they banged against the hull several times? We had seen thousands of dol-
phins and never once did any dolphin touch our boat. I have spoken to many sailors about
this, and they all agreed that dolphins will never touch a boat.
“I think they are trying to warn us about something,” I said. The boat was sailing along
peacefully at about four knots, and all seemed perfectly normal. Suddenly out of the dark-
ness of the dawn we noticed a huge, dark land mass right in front of us. “Jesus Christ,
what's that?” I yelled.
“Quick! We must come about! There's a fucking island right up ahead!”
“You're right, it is a bloody island!” echoed Gavin.
Quick as a flash, we were in the cockpit, and I loosened the stays off the tiller and put it
hard up to weather. We swung round slowly, and Déjà vu slowed down to almost a stall.
We had jibed now, and the boom had not been fitted with the preventer. It swung about
forcefully banging into the stays on the other side; the shaking of the mast could be felt all
through the boat. “Fuck!” I yelled out. Swinging down below, I hauled the companionway
steps out of the way of the engine. I could feel the swells of the breakers and imagined I
could even hear them breaking on a reef somewhere close at hand. I was wide awake now
and yelled up to Gavin, “Start the engine! I've turned on the engine water intake valve.”
