All The Little Fishes

One thing I never really had much perspective on before I left to sea was how busy the ocean really is.

Ignoring how full of shipping traffic it can really be, I mostly mean in regards to wildlife.

I adore animals and left with the deep desire within me that I would get to glimpse dolphins and hopefully whales at some point, but I never realised exactly how ubiquetous they would really be and how social.

There's been hundreds of dolphins, extremely social and incredibly intelligent creatures that they are, playing around the boat and spy-hopping out to watch us as we make our way through the water.

We've even had them fuss around as the spade-platform at the back of the boat when I popped down to say hello.

One night I even got sung to sleep by a pod as their calls reverberated through the steel of our boat and echoed around the saloon.

Jellyfish are often about on calm days too, too often accompanied by plastic bags that they seem to have mistakenly adopted into their smack.

Even glowing ones in the Med, which Tom got the pleasure of spying one chilly night, prompting a shrill squeak of excitement that woke me from my doze, but not fast enough to get a look myself.

Beaked Whales have bobbed up and down around us to make sure we weren't going to steal the dinner they appeared to be stealing when we passed a fresh marker a fisherman had just placed.

Sea turtles were the newest spy as we approached Tunisia, bobbing atop the wave as we passed, seemingly on his way North to Sardinia (Which I hear is one of the places they migrate to lay their eggs).

Even a particularly exhausted Sparrow came fluttering down one evening to rest, seemingly having strayed too far from shore to return as the night rolled in.

I took him inside after a few minutes and fed him before letting him back out the next morning as he certainly didn't seem to be enjoying the harsh wind and splashes of sea-water he had been enduring outside.

(We named him 'Jack' in honour of our joint lack of creativity).

One of my main regrets thus far has been to so rarely have my camera up on deck as most of these sightings were never caught.

I mean, the memories will always be with me, but a photo would have been nice too.

In future, this is something I plan to rectify as the variety and closeness to nature I have felt while bobbing atop these waves has been enchanting and if there are those out there who are considering sailing in order to get closer to nature, I would heartily recommend it.

Rare other oppertunities will you get to be so close to wild nature safely (Well, mostly safely).

You'll even spend a fair amount of time as wet as they are if that's a bonus.

Helps you feel really close to them, you know?

Either way, consider this a summary of intentions regarding photos of animals.

The plan going forward is to get more of them and couple them with information I find out about them for any interested.