Catamaran sailing around Bequia visited by pilot whales

Catamaran sailing around Bequia visited by pilot whales.

While sailing up to Bequia we were happily suprised by a big group of pilot whales.

Text by Mallika Kokke & images by our guest Alfred Steffen (thanks!)

Big males, smaller females and quite some young ones were swimming together and came very close to the boat. Pilot whales are actually a kind of dolphin and not a  whale. Normally we see them from a distance and with only two or three. They seem to be a bit shy and avoid to cross our path. The difference with a ‘regular’ dolphin is that they move slower and they have a curved dorsal fin. This time it was like they were really looking for contact. They stayed with the boat for over an hour.

A family of 30 Pilot whales swim around our catamaran

After some time I couldn’t hold myself anymore and put on my snorkelgear to join them in the water. Because I don’t know how pilot whales react on people in the water, especially with young joining them, I just hang on the back of the boat and didn’t jump in between them. I had to wait for a while staring in the vast blue of the ocean and being bumped by all the waves created by the boat, but in the end I was lucky: first I heard their sound in the water and suddenly the whole group swam underneath me and I am pretty sure they knew that I was hanging there. They are a bit bigger than the big ‘regular’ dolphins with a flat nose. They move a lot slower and keep there distance more than dolphins do. Not playing around you. But in their quiet, beautiful way they definately make contact! A special gift from Mother Earth :-).

Pilot whales while sailing (the big fin is the male)