Whale Rescue

We had an amazing and eventful 30 NM cruise from Barra De Navidad to Bahia Manzanillo. We discovered 10 miles out that the gremlins in our black water tank refused to discharge… It just so happens that orange seeds will stick in the duckbills preventing the pump from moving any fluid. This is the second time Bill has removed the fitting and flushed the tank… We have banned oranges from the boat indefinitely.

With the unpleasant job of black water gremlins behind us, we all settled into a relaxing cruise south to Manzanillo. Susan and I stretched out on the bow soaking up the sun, Tom put out the fishing poles, while Bill was in the pilothouse motoring along at 9 knots. I happened to look up and see a dreaded Mexican long line in our path. I managed to get Bill’s attention to stop the boat. But, it was to late. The line was hung up on our bulbous bow. Bill put the boat in reverse and we carefully backed out. After several attempts we managed to get the rope to our stern, cut it and tie it back together. Another disaster diverted… Unfortunately there was a sailfish tangled in the line, we made several attempts to free it, but with the threat of the line in our prop we decided not to take the chance.

We continued on to Manzanillo following Spring Day and Insignia. We heard over the radio from Spring Day that there was a whale ahead on our port side. As we drew closer it was obvious that a Mom and baby humpback were in trouble. The baby humpback was tangled in a gill net. We could see dozens of white floats being pulled along behind it.

Bill and Tom managed in about 2 seconds to put on their wet suits, grab their snorkels and a knife and jumped into the water. The wet suit dynamic duos to the rescue. I had one hand on my camera and the other on the wheel.

The baby was exhausted and couldn’t swim. The mother would position herself underneath the baby, lifting it to the surface to allow it to get a breath. Then the mother would roll to her side, take a breath and go back down to push the baby up again.

Bill removing the net from the baby. His head to the right looks so small compared to the whale.

Bill swimming and holding whales fluke.

Bill holding onto the gill net pulling himself closer to the baby whale.

Bill managed to swim close enough, trying not to get between mother and baby, not a good position to be caught in. He was able to grab a hold of the net and pull himself closer to the whales. When he was on the babies back he cut the net free. There was still a piece of rope and a couple of floats caught in the baby’s mouth. The mother allowed Bill at that time to swim along side them for about ten minutes. She was calm and would turn and look at him, positioning herself so that Bill could get close. It was an amazing, awesome, unreal experience! 

Bill never in his wildest dreams thought he would have the chance to touch an adult whale in the wild, or climb onto the back of a baby to comfort it as he removed the net it was tangled in... 

I managed to position the boat close enough to take a few pictures, but then realized I should stay away.  I didn't want to stress the whales even more. Thank you Lili for sharing your photo's

Bill swimming along side the whale. It all happened so fast, I wish now he would have had my gopro...

Our traveling companions
Spring Day and Insignia had a front row seat for our whale adventure.

Mother and baby swimming out to sea, without the gill net.

None of us could wipe the smiles off of our faces as they swam away. Anna Mae is swinging on the hook in The Bahia of Manzanillo, her crew is so thankful to have had such a memorable day.   

We managed after numerous tries to get the gill net out of the water.