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A bit about Sei whales by Sally

Sei Whales

The Sei whale is a Baleen whale that is one of the fastest whales in the world. It also is the third largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. The sei whale lives in most of the oceans and adjoining seas. The sei whale however doesn’t live in polar and subtropical waters. Sei whales live to around 70!  The scientific name for the sei whale is the Balaenoptera borealis.

The sei whale’s diet consists of zooplankton, copepods, krill and other shrimp like animals. The sei whale eats around 2000 lbs of food a day! The sei whale is very fast reaching up to 31 mph to catch fish and krill. 

The average size for a sei whale is 13.7 m for males and 15 m for females. They males weigh around 17 tons and the females weigh 18.5 ton. The pups at birth are 4.4–4.5 m (14–15 ft ) in length and sei whales usually have one pup every 2-3 years. They sometimes have twins but that’s pretty rare. The sei whale is a dark grey color on the top of their body with spots of lighter color. Their underside is either a light grey or an off white-ish color. They have a dorsal fin that is small and shaped like a dolphins. Their tail is thick and their fluke is pretty small compared to their body. 

Sei whale usually travel alone, or they travel in a pod up to 6 individuals.  Sei whales are almost never seen with their flukes out of the water, they also rarely breach. Sei whales don’t look too dissimilar to the Byrd whale, but the byrd whale is slightly smaller. Sei whales aren’t very great divers and they normally go to slightly deeper water for around 5-15 minutes. They blow their blowhole every 45-90 seconds, and unlike fin-whales they tend to try to not lift themselves out of the water and instead, they stay fully in the water.
The sei whale feeds near the surface of the water using its baleen plates to suck water and food in and then pushing out everything that was in its mouth. When everything gets pushed out the water leaves but the food and little particles get stuck in between the plates. The whales eat whats left after the water is gone. The sei whale competes for food against, the clupeid fish ( such as herring), the basking whale, and right whales.

The sei whale was hunted nearly to extinction by people all around the world. In 1979, the whales became protected in most places. The sei whale in now endangered and is protected almost everywhere. The current population is around 80,000 sei whales in the wild. Scientists think there were about three times as many sei whales in the wild before whaling.

I feel so lucky that I got to see a sei whale in the Sea of Cortez. It was truly an amazing experience to see something so big, graceful, powerful, and beautiful. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

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Our Trip To Cartegena

On a Monday morning we were all eating breakfast and thinking about leaving on Tuesday, the next day, but we were indecisive. The weather wasn’t looking good: ten ft seas with up to forty knots of wind 🙁  Dad finally put on the breaks and said we were NOT going. So now we’re here for another week—not so bad. The next day we did school and then went to the pool. It was very fun and all of us went down the slide at least twice! Me and Heidi, Lucy, Fenton, and I went down together. Fenton says it was very nutty! We all had a blast! 

That night we had a discussion on what we were going to do. The options were: 

  1. Stay home and explore town more
  2. Go on the Lost City Trek
  3. Go to Minca again
  4. Go to Cartagena

So we voted and Minca got out, the Lost City trek got out and that left going to Cartagena or staying home in Santa Marta. We didn’t know who would take care of Willie. That was our main downside!

The next morning we went to a talk about the tours offered from Santa Marta. Mom asked Saskia, a boat friend on Pinut, if she would be willing to watch Willie for us. Of course she could sleep on our boat and make herself at home. She said yes, so it was arranged. That night we packed and got ready, it was a 4-6 hour bus ride so we brought entertainment (my kindle and an iPod).  We went to bed excited for the big day. 

We woke up and got dressed and left. I drank a little coffee while we waited for the bus! The bus arrived and we got in. We had heard that it takes a pit stop every 2 hours so we relaxed and enjoyed the view. The next two hours went pretty slowly. I decided to read my book. We stopped at the bathrooms in about half an hour. Nobody really needed to go so we stayed on the bus, we were with a lot of other people so we still had to stop. The bus got going again and we started to listen to music again.

I finished one book just as we got to another stop. This stop had a lot of snacks so we got off to take a look. They had mango drinks and a lot of chips! They also had the cutest tiny kitten—adorable! A women handed him or her to me and the little cat just purred! It was so cute! We ended up getting two cups of mangos, an orange soda, and some plantain chips. I drank the orange soda, Heidi and Fenton shared the mango cup, and so did mom and dad with a different one! We saved the plantain chips for a little bit later. I started to read another book. We had been in the bus for three hours! I started to really need to go to the bathroom. Luckily we stopped at a bathroom. We opened our plantain chips which were very yummy. I read for the last hour or so and we finally arrived.

We got off the bus and walked to our rental house that we had reserved the night before. Unfortunately, there was construction on the building next to it, and the owners said the apartment was not functioning right. So, we took a cab to Getsemani and found an apartment there. We ate lunch and headed towards our apartment. It was so nice—very modern, white, and with three rooms and a hammock.

We went out to dinner at a place called Demente where we danced on the roof! Lucy and I shared an artichoke pizza. It was very good! Fenton ate a pepperoni and pepper pizza, Heidi ordered spinach and gorgonzola, mom and dad got that too. The pizzas were all personal pizzas—so we tried lots of different kinds. Mom and dad also ordered a couple appetizers: crab dumplings and grilled octopus which we all shared. Very yummy!

After dinner we headed home. We saw fireworks from our balcony and the streets turned on their Christmas lights. There were swirls and bells in the light design. We filmed part of our Youtube video and then had a mini dance party 😉 ! Soon it was time for bed. I read for a little while and then Heidi came to come to sleep with me. Fenton got to sleep in the hammock!

  We woke up pretty early and went to a breakfast restaurant. We ordered eggs with arepa and toast. It was very yummy. They also served it with hot chocolate! We went into town after breakfast and took a free walking tour. We spent a while looking for the man with the yellow umbrella!

Once we found Edgar, the walking tour guide, he told us to go sit down with the rest of the people on the English speaking tour. It was a little hard to understand him because he had an accent.  The tour was great! He explained all about the history of Colombia. After the tour finished, we went to the chocolate museum. It was so cool— they had an upstairs little free museum and then you could go downstairs for free samples. They were so yummy! They also had this really yummy corn drink with lots of spices and milk (kind of like a chai latte)! We got some mango in a cup and went into the park to eat it! We stopped by the emerald museum. It was really cool and there were rows and rows of emerald jewelry for sale for about 1,000 USDs! It was crazy expensive! 

We went back to our apartment and we had a lunch of leftovers and chips! The chips were delish! Dad fell asleep right away and I read my book in the hammock. We relaxed for a while until it was time for dinner.  The day before, we had seen a stand with yummy looking burgers, so we decided to try them for dinner. We ordered two burgers which had a potato chips, ham, and about ten different sauces although it looked gross everyone said it was delicious, and I got a fried potato and beef ball with passion fruit juice! It was so delicious, we sat down to eat the burgers while Fenton, Heidi, and I got ice-cream pops! I got a Ferro Roche pop it was so yummy and good! Lucy got some passion fruit pineapple juice.

We walked to where there were supposed to be some lights. We didn’t see any lights but there was some really cool dancers. Just as the dancers got really fast and loud there was a lot of fireworks! They were so pretty and surprising! Then, all of a sudden the lights turned on there was so many of them! We walked a while until we got to where the mayor was speaking I got some cotton candy. We went into the Walled City and ordered some Ceviche with octopus and fish in it.  Amazingly delicious!

When we finished, we started to head home. We saw more fireworks as we were walking home! Once we got to our apartment, we watched the lights and fireworks from our balcony. We got ready for bed and hit the sack.

The next morning we went out to explore Getsamani, the town we were in. There were really cool murals and more great street food for breakfast. We needed to go back to the apartment to check out and then head to fortress/castle. We walked a little over a mile to a massive fortress. We waited in line to get tickets to explore the old fortress! Thankfully, there were a lot of tunnels to go in to escape the blazing sun! In the tunnels, you could jump out and scare people because it was pitch black in some parts.  We had lots of fun doing that.

Some people had said that the documentary was very interesting so we went to find it. The documentary was in Spanish so a lady that worked at the fortress put sub titles on for us! When the film finished, we had to get a cab back to the bus station. We squished into a cab and we were off! 

We got in the bus and got ready for the next five hours…Luckily, it only took 4 hours to make it home!

-Sally 

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A trip to the Dentist

Hi guys,

I am going to be writing about our adventures with the dentist.  It all started off as a normal day in Colombia.  Dad went into town to get breakfast and brought it back to the boat—lots of fried yummy food like arepas, dough battered potatoes, dough battered fried eggs… We started school and then decided to go to a museum to learn about the history of Colombia. On our way home from the museum, we bought a local Colombian pork lunch (pork, rice, salad) and brought it back to the boat! Yum!  When I finished school, Mom, Dad, and I went to find a dentist and also stop by the grocery store. 

We knew where the dentist was supposed to be but couldn’t find its exact location. We had to ask a police man for directions. He helped us find the right spot and we asked “Limpiar los dientes?” to the lady at the desk.  She said “ Si uno minutó”.  She got the dentist who knew a little English. The dentist asked,  “Who’s going?” Dad and I were very surprised, but mom got up to go sit in the dental chair!  He said “Ok if everyone’s  teeth are like that you’ll need a cleaning and that will be around….” he got up to see what the price would be.  I didn’t care about the price, I was just glad I didn’t have to get my teeth cleaned right then and there. But we did schedule an appointment for the next day at 10 am! 

       So, the next day everyone went to the dentist—we arrived at 9:45-9:50. We waited a while and then dad went in to get his teeth cleaned! He came out about 30 minutes later saying his teeth had never been cleaner! Next, Fenton went in and we all read magazines and waited (everyone except dad who went home to work on the boat). Fenton came out and explained to us that he had six or seven cavities! We thought he was joking. I was super nervous for my turn. Heidi went in next, Fenton’s gums were purpleish so I asked if they hurt and he said not at all! So I wasn’t that worried, but then…. Heidi came out also with six or seven cavities and said it hurt so bad. Uh oh! It was mixed opinions! Or Fenton said that to make me not worry.  

Well, it was my turn to go in. As soon as I got in the dentist asked me if I wanted the chair on massage. Of course I said yes! It was so nice! But when he got the drill thing out, an ultrasonic teeth cleaning machine, I was nervous again. It was only a little sensitive sometimes and then it hurt a little bit, but then it was done and I was fine! I told Lucy it didn’t hurt too bad and I think she went in with a positive outlook. Unfortunately I had one cavity. Lucy also came out with one and so did mom—oops. The dentist told us the cavities were all very small so we don’t have to worry about them right now. I’m pretty sure we’re all going to wait to fix them! We walked out of the dentist office around 12 noon and we were all getting hungry. So, we made a quick stop at the grocery store and headed home for lunch!  We are happy to have clean teeth and will see what the next dentist says in six months!

        That was all the excitement for the day… Hope you enjoyed,

                                                                              Sally 

                 

      

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Getting ready🐾……

Puppy playdate over the weekend! August 30, 2018

Hi guys!

So, we have now been going to the animal shelter for four weeks in a row.  Some puppies have gradually gotten bigger and others have rapidly gotten bigger. On Wednesday, Ally asked us if we wanted to foster a dog for the weekend! Ally asked me which one I would take if I could, and I picked out Shiraz. He doesn’t bite too much and he doesn’t sleep all day and he’s fat and adorable. He is my favorite in the wine litter! I looked at mom and she said, “Maybe, I’ll think about it…we’ll see!” I was super excited! When we got home I told everyone the news. This was yesterday!

If we foster the puppy, it will be my responsibility.  So, my job became finding a safe place to keep the puppy.  I started finding a way to block off the stairs.  I moved our large bins of books to block the stairs.  Mission accomplished. Where will the puppy sleep?  In Willie’s crate—made for an 80 pound dog! This little boy is only about 10 weeks old and maybe 8ish pounds—not big at all! Now, about Willie, what if he gets tired of the puppy? I will supervise the dogs together and make sure Willie gets plenty of attention.  My last dilemma is transportation. The bus might not allow a puppy to ride since he’s not potty trained. My mom and I have asked Ally at the shelter to give us a ride.  We just heard back from Ally, that she will make it work! I am super excited to take on this very big responsibility!

I’ll let you know how it goes next week!

🐾🖤Sally

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Visiting the puppies by Sally

Hi everyone

This blogpost is about volunteering at the local pet shelter in Grenada, the GSPCA.  We woke up to a gloomy rainy Wednesday and got ready to go to the shelter.  We were supposed to go from 8:30am to 12:00 noon.  Soon, the rain turned into a downpour (if you went outside you would be soaked in seconds). But the puppies were waiting, so we got on our rain jackets and climbed into our dinghy. We arrived at the dock in a couple of minutes and walked up a short hill to get to the shelter. We walked in and the office manager brought us to a back room. Since it was down pouring we couldn’t walk dogs.  Instead, a volunteer named Allie, asked if we wanted to bathe puppies. Of course we did! We were all super excited to bathe and cuddle these cute 5 week old puppies! So, Lucy and I went back with Allie to get some puppies—they were so adorable! Mom bathed them and we started to cuddle them in blankets to warm them up.  There were 5 litters of puppies that we took care of.  There was the Winnie the Pooh litter, the Rock litter, the Toy Story litter, among others!

Outside, the rain was still pouring down. Allie told us that there was a leaky roof over some puppies, so Fenton and I then went and started cuddling and playing with those pups.  Once they were all sleeping, we rejoined the rest of the family in the bathing room.

Allie brought in some older puppies (about 12 weeks and much bigger than the new babies). They were muddy dirty from playing outside.  We gave them all baths and mom started playing with them in their exercise pen. Heidi and Fenton went to play with the bigger dogs in the outdoor pen. Lucy and I went back to the leaky roof pen to dry off some more pups. About 20 minutes later, all the work was done and we felt that we were getting in the way, so it was time to go.  We started walking back to our dinghy but the rain had not calmed down at all! Our dinghy was so low in the water since it was full of rain .  Dad got the water out, picked us up and we headed back to our boat.  Once we got back to our boat, we took off our raincoats (that didn’t do much good), dried off and put on clean clothes, and made soup and tea! So excited to go back next Wednesday!  Hopefully in better weather.

💕Sally💕

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The Quill, a Volcano Hike on Statia

A post by Sally

On May 22nd, we started our day at 7am. We got dressed, ate breakfast, and put our shoes on. After dinghying in to the dock, we walked up the road and started walking up a dirt path on a hill to get to town. Willie loved seeing all of the goats! After walking across town, we got up to the dirt road and the hot sun started beating down on us. We walked on stopping once for a water break. We got to the trail head and shade was just ahead of us. Willie decided that under a tree with shade was the best spot to lay down. We finally got him up and it was a nice hike up with lots of shade. There were water droplets on the trees so if you got a little hot, you could just shake the tree and get a little shower of water to cool you off.

After about an hour of hiking through the forest, we arrived at a spot where we had to make a decision which way to go: up, down or around. We decided to go up—a fun hike with lots of climbing. After a steep hike up we were all rewarded by the pretty views.

At the top, we had a snack break and got refreshed with water.

Willie had fun running down the mountain, trying to catch up to Heidi, and looking for goats, and in the process nearly yanked my arm off! We hiked down a little more and got back to where the trails split. We met two people coming up from the bottom of the crater and asked them how it was. They said it was good so we decided to go down to the crater bottom—a steep, windy hike with lots of hanging vines and big trees with huge trunks. For this, we let Willie off leash. I would grab his leash and Lucy would run ahead and then I would let him go.

There were lots of signs with edible plants, so Lucy and I kept our eyes peeled for edibles! But…we couldn’t find anything. We continued down and found a huge tree and a thick rope hanging down. We all took a turn swinging on it.

We kept going down until we reached the end, where we turned around and the down turned into uphill. We started back up.

We got up the hill, back to where the trail split and took a break. We then continued down the rest of the trail, bumped into a few other cruisers, and continued back into the town. By now, at around 1pm the sun was blazing down on the pavement and we were HOT! We hurried through town while dogs barked from everywhere. We kept going down until we finally reached the beach. Willie pulled to get in the water and when he was done swimming, he dug himself a hole, for a cooling off spot. We went to the hiking office to refill our water bottles, then motored back to our boat to go swimming. We’ll be resting for the rest of the day. What a day!

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A tour of the DR – by Sally

Yesterday, we had a fun filled day of touring: Christopher Columbus’s first house in the Americas, a humongous fruit and animal plantation, beautiful beaches and friendly people, ending with a spectacular dinner with new friends. All of this fit into one amazing day.
We woke up at 7:00 am and met our tour guide, José, at 8:00 am and started our amazing day. Our first stop was at a “cow community” where we watched the cows getting hand milked. As we got in the car, a parade of cows came by followed by the farmer riding on a horse.
We continued on our adventure and stopped at the museum of Christopher Columbus in La Isabella. There was a ton of information— but of course we’re in the Dominican Republic and they speak Spanish— so all the writing was in Spanish! Luckily José knows Spanish and English so he translated for us. We then went to see Christopher Columbus’s house (or what was left of it)! We also went to a couple of cute little gift stores, where we bought a necklace, earrings, and a cool hand carved wood turtle. Everything there was homemade from local items.
We then hopped in the car and went back to Luperón to grab a quick lunch. We got the local plate of the day morro y pollo (rice and beans and chicken) delicious! We finished lunch, tearing Heidi away from a playful cat. José thought we would enjoy the next stop—the plantations! When we arrived, my mind was blown. There were thousands of coffee, cocoa, cherry, avocado, zappidillo, mango, sour sap, bread fruit, papaya, banana, plantain, paprika, cilantro, tobacco, and many more exotic plants and trees. As we neared the end, we came to the farm area where we were greeted by the honking geese! There is a cow that decided to lick me and Lucys entire arm! Then we neared the corner and saw ostriches, except Heidi who found another adorable little kitten to play with. José picked up a baby goat and handed it to me. It cuddled its head in my arm and nibbled my finger! I also finally got to hold the little kitten! We fed the ostriches some leaves from the nearby tree. We finally got Heidi away from the kitten and hopped back into the van.
Our next stop was Cambioso where there was a truly amazing view of the ocean. However, the road to get there was very bumpy, rocky, full of potholes, and at many points covered in water. You would never know how poor the people of Cambioso are if you didn’t turn the corner after arriving at the beach. Once you turn the corner, the peoples houses reminded me of an old shed in not very good shape. Some of the doors were boarded up. All of the people were outside sitting in chairs in the shade with little bits of drying laundry all around. We started giving toothbrushes out but soon realized that most of the kids were at school, so we only handed them out to the little guys. We were thinking of giving the toothbrushes to the parents, but José told us the toothbrushes wouldn’t get to the kids, and the parents would sell them and buy something for themselves. I felt horrible and instead of giving them to the parents we gave them to the kids as they walked home from school. We saw so many little kids ages 3 or 4, running home with the biggest smile on his/her face and hugging us. It made me feel so lucky to be where I am in this world. It only takes one little gift like a toothbrush to make someone’s day a whole lot brighter.
When we got home, back to our boat, I took a quick nap. In half an hour we headed up to meet the marina owner at his restaurant to have dinner together. When we got there, his family pulled up. Elena was 6 so we played together a lot. Although I speak English and she speaks Spanish, we both had a great time and we became great friends! In fact, we planned a get together of brownie making for the next day…
In one day, I learned a lot about Christopher Columbus, local plants and animals, met a lot more Dominican Republic people, and saw the beautiful Dominican Republic countryside and beaches. What an amazing experience!

Bye till I write again,
💕Sally💕

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Wait We’re Going Snorkeling…

I am going to write about snorkeling in Marathon at Sombrero Reef, it was super fun!There were a bunch of fish and I saw a barracuda! This is how it began! We where selling our old dinghy to a man named Jon, when he heard us talking about going to the beach then he offered to drive us on his motor boat over to the reef! SUPER nice guy. About 15 mins later we arrived at Jon’s house again with full on snorkel gear!! Then 15 more mins later we arrived at the reef! Yay! As we hopped in, Jon started to throw bread into the water hundreds of fish swam up to the bread! So cool! We started to swim away from the boat (don’t worry we where on a mooring ball) and stuck our heads in the water. So many beautiful fish! I was watching a little fish when I saw a Barracuda! I started swimming super fast to mom the barracuda followed me there than I swam towards dad and it disappeared into the deep! I started to get cold so I swam back to the boat! Soon we started to head back but to my surprise we got near an island as I came closer I saw a shark (everyone else thought it was a Tarpon)! Ahhhh!  We started to wade towards the island, lots of  lobster holes! We got on the island and was surprised to see lots and lots of coral! We came to the back of the island and saw a …bluish bubble thingy that looked like blown glass! Turns out it was a Portuguese Man of War ! We had such a blast! Thanks Jon! Bye for now!

Write sooner next time, Sally

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Our First Passage

Hi this is Sally! I am going to tell you about the last two CRAZY days of our very first passage from Mobile to Clearwater. When I say CRAZY, I mean over 25 knot winds, pounding waves one after another, CRAZY. Normally, I don’t get seasick but when you’re trying to sleep and you keep slamming down with the waves it gets really tricky to fall asleep. So after a beautiful day sailing, our first night on passage I was still up at 5 am! Two hours of sleep and a stomachache…

The second day on passage was wavy. I took an hour long nap, ate dinner and cake, and the waves calmed down. Now the interesting and crazy part is:  I get in bed but since I took a nap I’m just not that tired. Then, here comes a big 65 lb Willie jumping on me since I was in my mom’s and dad’s (and Willie’s) room ‘cause the motor was on in my room. BANG, at 10 pm the big waves start coming again. Now my whole room is slamming into the water again, GREAT!  This makes it 10x harder to fall asleep because EVERY SINGLE TIME the boat moves, Willie sticks his head up and whimpers.  That is impossible to ignore and I find myself comforting the dog. 11 pm still trying to fall asleep. Ok I’m asleep now.

The third day on passage, I wake up at the sound of rain. I find a HUGE wet spot under the window right where I’m sleeping. I close the window right away.  Down the hall ahead of me, I also see there’s a leak in the window so water is pouring down. No not the usual rain, waves coming over the boat. I’m about to puke at this point from all the bumps.  Uh oh, I see a bin in the TOILET which the top had somehow managed to come off and stuff was everywhere.  So, a toenail clipper is floating in the toilet and on top of that I can’t get gloves (theres a possibility that tools can crush me from the cabinet that the gloves are in!). First things first… waves are pouring on me so I get a bucket for the leak “Theres a leak in the boat!” I yell. Luckily, the bucket solves the problem for now.  Back to the toenail clippers… before I grab them I tell Lucy “ get the hand sanitizer ready!” Total GROSSNESS. I already am very seasick so I head outside (that normally makes me feel better).  Next thing I know, I’m fast asleep. I wake up. Go back to sleep. I can’t believe my watch— it’s already 12pm! I read I little then Heidi, Lucy, and I watch Just Add Magic. We’re all still getting used to passages…

Bye for now,

Sally