.: Sailfish, dolphins and whales, oh my!

Some of the many dock birds at Coff's Harbour

Great news! I’ve been busting at the seams for the past month – but I’ve finally been given the go-ahead to share the wonderful news that our baby girl Kylie and her husband Taylor are expecting their first child Feb. 15, 2014 (and our 4^th grandchild). So excited!!!!

What is intriguing is that 26 years ago when I was pregnant with her, we visited our friends in Australia. That was where I heard the name Kylie for the first time and just loved it. Kylie travelled to see our family friends when she was 17. This inspired her to do her 2^nd year of university on exchange in Australia and she returned yet again to do her teachers college.

During this time she met and fell in love with an Australian named Taylor. They married last year in Canada, and bought their first house in Ashcroft, B.C. this spring. In the summer they went back to Oz for a visit, completing the circle that began 26 years ago; as this time Kylie was pregnant with her little one.

We have had a fun and productive week at Coff’s Harbour. We spent the weekend playing tourists and enjoyed two days of offshore motor boat racing.

Don't worry - we didn't do this really tacky camel ride

Exciting motor-boat races

I still had my little cottage, so this gave Peter a couple of nights off the boat after his crossing. Once the weekend was over, and the stores were open, Peter fixed the prop shaft leak and also the problem with the jenny that they encountered during the crossing. So thanks to my talented Captain, we were good to go!

Picture this…yesterday morning at 9:00 a.m. we left Coff’s Harbour. Although the weather called for favourable winds, we didn’t see anything over 10 knots so we began motoring for our anticipated 24 hour journey to Port Stephens. As we exited Coff’s Harbour we were rewarded with a large pod of dolphins playing off our bow for over half an hour. Just as they headed off, we saw two humpback whales in the distance. Throughout the day we were treated to continual visits by more dolphins and more humpback whales. They were everywhere.

While we were watching two juvenile whales playing in the distance, without warning, two whales almost broad-sided us. At the last moment, Peter veered course and so did they. The whales continued to travel alongside us, showing off and playing by flipping their tails and blowing. One slap of the tail was so close it splashed the boat! I was in heaven, as I’d never seen these huge creatures up so close and personal. The pictures don’t do them justice, but I will never forget this wonderful experience.

Amazing, we could almost reach out and touch them and as we moved away to give them more

space they just kept right alongside us.

As the sun began to set (yes, another amazing sunset), the wind picked up and we were able to engage the self-steering. As soon as we turned off the engine, two more whales breached and entertained us as if to say goodnight to the day.

sailing off in to the sunset

It was a pretty easy sail until my 1:00 a.m. shift when the wind died. From then on we had to hand sail, but that was okay since it kept us alert, as there were lots of ships, ferries and other boat traffic out. We were steering by the stars, as there was no moon and it was pitch black. We were hoping we didn’t hit a sleeping whale. Very surreal.

At dawn this morning, Peter thought I needed my sleep more than witnessing a gorgeous sunrise. When he was relating this to me afterwards about how awesome it was, I mentioned that I would’ve thought that after being married for 35 years, he would know I’d rather see an ocean sunrise than catch a bit of sleep.

It was my turn to take the next three hour shift. During this time, we were listening passionately to The Canadian Tenors singing their hearts out. (they are fantastic, if you haven’t heard any of their three albums). To heighten this experience, we were surrounded by different pods of dolphins for the entire morning. At one point, on starboard, a large sailfish jumped out of the water. The icing on the cake though, was a full grown humpback soaring completely out of the water as if dancing to the music. (Bucky…all I could say was wow, wow, wow!)

They love playing under the bow wake

As I write this, we are heading in to Port Stephens (just 3 hours behind schedule due to the light winds). Another two days should find us in Sydney.

This past 27 hours, I’ve felt like a kid on Christmas morning. I am just so incredibly grateful that Peter and I can live outside in this world teeming with natural wonders.

Until next week…..Congrats to Taylor and Kylie. We will love your child to the moon and back…just like we do you.