In 2019 Terry (aka “the amphibiographer”) got a camera that can shoot 4K video. But in 2019 our 2008 computer was not fast enough to play the clips. This meant that we couldn’t actually review video or audio of the whales that Terry recorded. Further down the line we couldn’t coordinate it with my hydrophone recordings. So in 2021 we finally bought a 2019 computer that could actually play the recordings we’d made. While listening to audio files of singing whales that I had recorded in October 2019 I heard grunts, growls, belches and squeaks that didn’t sound like a song. Are these these whales practising whale solfège? are they enjoying a good meal? or are they talking? What a find! I hope you enjoy the underwater conversation as much as we did.
Category: Whales
August #1 2022 – How do Whales Nurse Their Babies?
More Moms with calves are showing up here in the Salish Sea this season – 6 pairs sighted so far. Judging by their playful acrobatics and assertive blows the young ones are thriving. The mothers seem to be in good shape as well considering they lose 1/3 of their body weight during the >10,000km (6,000 mile) round trip migrations to Mexico, Central America or Hawaii and back. Add in the previous 4 months of nursing her hungry baby and it’s no surprise that a mother whale’s prime directive once she reaches the feeding waters is to feed.
“It’s Big Mama” “And she’s got a calf!” Terry is jubilant. Big Mama is one of the whales we have met several times during the years we’ve been on the water. She is a prolific mother and veteran of the humpback comeback to the Salish Sea. Big Mama was the first whale to return to these waters in 1997. Since then she has brought each of her new calves back with her.
Big Mama and her new baby are accompanied by another adult whale. We couldn’t tell who it was because we couldn’t see the whale’s flukes or whether (s)he was female or male. If the companion whale migrated together with Big Mama and her calf from their southern mating/birthing area then this whale is probably a male who is interested in Big Mama as a potential mate. This “escort” can be an asset to Big Mama and her calf if a pod of killer whales attempts an attack on the young one as he will protect the calf with Big Mama. However, he can also be a nuisance if he attempts to mate with her and interferes with nursing.
Mother humpback whales nurse their babies for the first year even though the baby is already learning to fish as soon as she reaches the feeding area. The baby thrives on mother’s rich milk, which is between 45-60% fat How do whales (and dolphins) nurse in their underwater environment? Terrestrial mammals like humans have nipples which are exposed and easy to suckle. But the mammary glands of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are concealed inside 2 slits on either side of their genital slit low on the abdomen. The nipples are inverted inside these mammary slits. A whale calf must dive underneath the mother and nudge the mammary slits with her rostrum to release the nipple from the slit. Whale calves might be able to roll their tongues into a tube shape and press their rolled tongue around the nipple to channel milk. The mother could then squirt milk into the calf’s mouth using muscles around her mammary glands. Because of the high fat content the consistency of Mom’s milk is thick and doesn’t easily dissolve in water if some leaks out.
Mom and calf stay in close physical contact in the first months of the baby’s life. So much of what transpires between moms and babies is speculation because it happens underwater out of our visual range. Their vocal communication also happens outside of our human hearing range. Mother and baby communicate through touch and very quiet low frequency grunts, barks and groans. They “whisper” so their sounds don’t attract killer whales. Because these “whispers” are so quiet Jude can only pick up a signal on her hydrophone within about 200m of the whales. However, since the whale whispers are too low for humans to hear it’s impossible in realtime to know whether any whale conversations are actually occurring. This can be very frustrating! It is only after recording in the vicinity of whales and afterwards importing the recordings into a software program called a spectograph which translates the sound waves into a visual representation that we can see whether we recorded something. It’s also possible to speed up the slow low frequency sound waves 2 or 3 times within the program so they can be heard in our human hearing range. Unfortunately there is no room in Blue P’s small cockpit for any more audiovisual or computer equipment and no budget for expensive hardware and software. All this has to be done later on our home system.
We learn that the whales are communicating all the time, which is obvious with any amount of time observing their interactions. In the plankton filled waters of the summer Salish Sea it is vibration and sound that carry myriad whale messages through the water. Once on the feeding grounds Big Mama and her calf may associate with various other whales through the season and even during one day. We watch them form a group, separate for a while and come back together obviously communicating with each other. Since all Big Mama’s children return to their mother’s feeding area some of these whale companions may be the new calf’s older brothers and sisters. So many intriguing questions…….
August #2 2022 – Surprise!
Terry and I have more than a nodding – pun intended – acquaintance with sleeping whales. In fact sleeping is what whales seem to enjoy most when in close proximity to Blue Parrot, our 50 year old sailboat. So when we encountered 2 humpback whales peacefully snoozing side by side in mid Sutil Channel Terry and I prepared to settle in for an afternoon nap. In fact Terry was just about to put his camera away for a while when this happened.
Which proves once again that understanding the motivations and behaviours of whales is a mysterious journey indeed.
Featured
July 2022 #3 – Bubble Feeding!
“T-Rex is bubble feeding off Wilby Shoals” the voice of whale watching guide ‘Supernova’ sings cheerily over SV Blue Parrot’s VHF radio.
“Let’s go!” I turn Blue P 90°W. We’ve been floating between Quadra and Cortes Islands scanning for marine mammals.
“It’ll take us half an hour to get there. She’ll probably have stopped by then.” Terry sighs .”it would be amazing to see lunge feeding again”
“YES!” I am juiced. We’ve only seen humpback whales lunge feeding once before and that was 4 years ago in 2018 – an unforgettable experience. Here is the link to that Blog:
https://welcomingwhales.com/2018/10/24/october-2018-humpbacks-lounge-feeding/
During the half hour it takes to get there at our extreme cruising speed of 4.85 knots we try to pinpoint the exact location of the whale. Whales are big but the ocean is bigger and they easily disappear from view. “There’s a circle of boats about 200m off the point. 3 look like whale watching boats” Hawk-eye Terry reports from the bow.
“I see them – on our way” If you can’t find whales in their feeding areas during the summer it’s a good bet that somebody else has. Boats that have been lingering in one place for a while without obvious fishing gear are probably with a whale. And people fishing forget to fish when there’s a lunge feeding whale nearby!
“I see the whales! 2 just came up in the middle of those boats” I slow to an even slower crawl and inch up to the scene. “Woah!” “Right beside the Boat!” They are less than 30 meters away, in close to the shore. Wilby shoals has depths varying from a few feet to hundreds of feet. Currently Blue P’s depth sounder is reading 18 feet!. “I’ve got to move out from the shore” Jude tells Terry. The whales move too – right past us around all the boats. In the time it takes us to move 30 meters they have covered 230. We wait. 20 minutes later………
“They’re coming back this way. They may be doing a circuit”. Terry shouts. I drop the hydrophone to record any feeding burps and belches.
“They’re making that sound!” “the whining sound that herds the fish-Uhrrrrrrrrrr? I try to imitate them. “I hear the bubbles………. Now they’re coming up! Phshshsh—–BUBUBUBUBUBUBUB” It’s a fairly pitiful imitation but with the hydrophone I can hear what the whales are doing underwater and predict when they will come up. Terry gets ready with the camera but I can’t predict where they will come up. He watches the sea gulls circle and hones in when they drop towards the water just as the whales break the surface. Focusing the camera on the exact spot where Terry deduces the whales will surface is a finely tuned art, experience and a large lump of luck.
In order to record a decent signal with the hydrophone we have to be within 200m of the whales. It’s difficult with all the boats starting and stopping their motors to keep up with the whales. But we can’t begrudge anyone this awesome experience. Everyone out here is just as thrilled as we are. And there are times when the whales are close enough for a clear recording. I am over the moon “I’ve waited 7 years to record bubble feeding”. In fact both of us are over the moon. We linger longer with our lunge feeding friends as the other boats leave, the sun sets and the moon rises. Ah…this is the magic time for the best video and audio recordings. We’ll travel back by moonlight – and our running lights of course.
March 2202 #2 – Humpback Whale Concert Hall
This is a recording of humpback whales singing in a canyon whose walls bounce sound around like a concert hall. It seems that whales appreciate a venue with great acoustics too! Their operatic pyrotechnics are thrilling as they vibrate through my chilled dew-soaked body in the middle of the night floating on the Sea of Cortes. I’m back in Los Frailes this time in a different sailboat with a different captain. She’s a skipper who has been sailing her 45 ft Morgan ketch around the Sea of Cortes mostly solo for the past 4 years.
Actually we aren’t back in Los Frailes yet. It was our destination but that afternoon the boat’s diesel engine overheated and capitane Vicki shut her down immediately. We spend the day troubleshooting; replacing hoses, tightening screws and listening to every sound. As night creeps in Vicki declares work done for the day to be continued next morning. So we’re floating on the calm seas off the East Cape of Baja California Sur. Good time to drop the hydrophone. Whale voices rise up and envelope us. We are enthralled and calmed. “I’m turning in” Vicki heads down to the aft cabin. I find myself on night watch soaked, exhausted and in love with the undulating stars in the black sky.
Just above the eastern horizon Venus is bright. Orange Mars attends her on one side and dimmer Scorpio on the other. As I watch 2 shiny yellow spots emerge from the sea. They swell into horns and then become a bright bowl floating on the the water. It’s the crescent moon rising out of the ocean! The whales’ songs fade with the starlight as dawn brightens the sky.
When Vicki wakes up we discover that the engine shutdown was caused by flotsam and jetsam clogging up the raw water intake. It’s no big deal and a common problem.
After clearing the intake and hoses and tightening up the water maker belt which was making disturbing noises we get underway again and make it to Frailes to anchor and snooze. In the morning I take the kayak to paddle a surf landing on the beach and freedive along the NW shore. The constant wind and waves stir up the sandy bottom. Visibility is about 5 meters in the silty water. However it’s fun to follow a herd of parrot fish around in the surging surf.
We spend a couple of days in Frailes recovering our energy. scanning for whales and listening for whalesong. We see a few whales but not the busy nursery of Moms and calves that I had hoped to encounter. “let’s retrace our track to where we heard the whales and find them again” I suggest. We motor out along our track for a few hours but don’t hear anything. “I want to head back” Vicki says. I would like to stay and give it more time but it takes a lot of patience to be with whales. Mostly it’s long stretches of waiting. So we start to head north in the late afternoon. There’s a little bit of breeze. “I’m gonna raise up the main” Vicki says as she unties Rhiannon’s yellow sail cover. “I’ll leave the hydrophone down while we’re sailing” I say. We rig it off the stern and hear whalesong through my speaker. “I think it’s getting louder” I shout ” Is that a whale that just breached off our beam about 400meters?” We are sailing along Cabo Pulmo a couple of miles offshore as the sound amplifies. We zone out to healing sounds of whales singing and ocean waves washing over the hydrophone cable.
It sounds like the ocean is breathing.
September #1 2021 – How to Sex a Humpback Whale
Terry, the amphibious videographer and I are scanning the water between Powell River and Texada Island searching for a humpback whale that might be entangled. “She said they saw a white buoy on the whale’s back around the dorsal fin.” Reported Susan, the founder of the Wild Ocean Whales Society and monitor of the whale reporting hotline. “They couldn’t be any more specific than that and they weren’t sure but keep an eye out.” So we were, 4 eyes out to be exact. We’d seen half a dozen whales today but none with any trap gear attached. Sometimes the light playing on a wet black back can play tricks on human eyes.
We have been floating in the area of the Upper Sunshine Coast off Powell River for the past few days. We’ve floated around with 1 duo and 1 trio of humpback whales this morning who don’t seem to mind that they are snoozing and/or fishing in the middle of a ferry line used frequently by 2 local ferries that travel across the strait and back. Perhaps they like the predictability of a ferry schedule and time their activities around them although I wouldn’t stake my fishing bank on BC ferries schedules! Staying out of their way and minimizing the effects of rolling ferry wake and loud engine noise on video and underwater sound recordings is a challenge. But whales are where you find them so when 2 of the trio get lively and head South along Texada Island shore we are curious.
A Huge noisy Barge is heading towards them (and us). We’ve observed some sleeping whales reacting to the big wake of a heavy displacement ship with what seems to us to be an annoyed or startled tail slap. These 2 aren’t sleeping but one raises flukes high in the air and slams half their body down in a powerful peduncle throw. The other whale is tail lobbing repeatedly. “Are they pissed off because of the barge?” I wonder. But the barge passes and the high level activity continues.
The whales are raising their flukes high enough out of the water that their genital area is visible in some of the video. It is very difficult to determine the sex of a humpback whale. A very clear view of the underside of their body between flukes and bottom of their throat pleats is necessary. Both male and female whales have navels, longitudinal genital slits and a bump near the flukes called a carina. The females have 2 mammary slits which cover their nipples, one on either side of the genital slit. They also have a smaller “hemispherical lobe” which is a bump at the base of their genital slit.
Does sexing the humpback whales in the video still elude you? Keep in mind that the clear illustration of Humpback Genitalia is not obscured by jets of seawater coursing over the whale’s body from the tremendous splashing caused by a peduncle throw. Also missing are the many barnacles clinging to all openings and bumpy skin surfaces. Good Luck!
July #1 2021 – Find the Sleeping Whale
Why do whales get runover by boats? The following video holds some clues.
Did you find the sleeping whale? Did you notice that even on a calm day it is difficult to spot a whale resting just under the surface of the water and barely breathing. Some days even strong blows won’t be visible due to atmospheric conditions. Add a brisk breeze and half-meter waves to people in a hurry and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Tragically, strikes on whales by speeding recreational or crew boats, fishing boats, cruise ships and tankers are increasing. More boats and ships are occupying whale migration routes and plying the coastlines where whales feed, mate and give birth to their babies. Whales are showing up with more split dorsal fins and propellor scars striping their backs. Careless fishers, crabbers and prawners abandon nets and traps or leave floating polypro lines and bouys which entangle baleen whales. Unlike dolphins, baleen whales don’t have the advantage of echolocation to help reveal hidden dangers in often murky waters.
Here is a site where you can find Best Practises to avoid whale entanglements in Fishing gear and what to do if you see an entangled whale.
https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/mammals-mammiferes/whales-baleines/docs/entanglements-empetrements-pub-eng.html#best-practices
Whales are large and strong so they can carry heavy loads of fishing gear long distances for a long time. Nylon and steel lines don’t break in the way that kelp does when twisted so whales often become wrapped in lines and nets in their twisting attempts to break free.
An entangled whale or dolphin on the west coast of Canada has only one shot at getting help. The DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) in their wisdom has assigned only one person, Paul Cottrell, to monitor the entire Pacific Coast. He alone can officially initiate and direct disentanglements. This means that he flies to wherever a whale is entangled on the whole Pacific coast with its many islands and inlets. It’s no wonder so many whales, pinnipeds, turtles and fish are dying.
Check out this article on the Tyee news website. https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/03/30/Whales-Back-BC-Fishing-Gear-Killing-Them/
This video shows some of the Dangers marine mammals endure.
You can help. If you are in a boat for any purpose watch for whales and SLOW DOWN in waters where whales are going about their business. Watch for whales the way you would watch for deadheads or reefs that could damage you and your vessel.
December 2020 #2 – Chain of Whales Feed Together
“I don’t know how many whales are out here! 6 of them – at least.” Terry is counting whales diving, surfacing, circling. They’re almost rubbing together they’re so close. I wonder: “Are they fishing? They must be fishing”.
It’s common in Alaska for humpback whales to form large feeding groups where each whale has a role to play. The iconic shot of all the whales surfacing together, mouths agape and pleated throats bulging is in every humpback whale documentary. Here in the Salish Sea we have yet to see anything like this group feeding buffet. Perhaps the schools of fish are bigger in Alaska or maybe the schools are in deeper water here and the whales finish gulping under the water. Even without the lunging at the surface half a dozen whales swirling and moving together is fascinating to see.
“Do you recognize anyone?” I ask camera man Terry as he zooms in on the action. “One is definitely ‘Zed’, with the chewed off left fluke.”
“Yeah” Terry answers “and I see Nick with them. See that white fluke? Could be Apollo or maybe even Neptune” Neptune is Apollo’s calf.
“Snouter!” I exclaim as a whale rostrum partially emerges from the water. Snouter is our affectionate name for a whale’s “face” also known by whale lovers as “pickeleface” because of the many bumps on a whale’s chin. Each bump contains at least one single sensing hair. Biologists are not sure what tubercule hairs are sensing but a good guess would be movement and vibration. Like the whiskers of seals and sealions humpback whales could sense schools of fish from the “trails” of disturbance their swimming leaves in the water. Tubercule hairs may even sense electrical charge or something more mysterious since they are rich in nerves.
Mother whales like to support their babies on their rostrums so they might have other functions as well – smell? There is an organ in a humpback’s chin whose function hasn’t been identified as yet. Could it have an olfactory function along with the tubercules? The deeper down the whale whole one ventures the more questions bubble out!
October 2020 Halloween Reveries with Whales
These are the sounds we were hearing on Halloween night. Terry and I anchored off Savary Island in our little old sailboat Blue Parrot. A lovely end-of-October eve on the Salish Sea filled our senses. I dropped my 2 hydrophones over opposite sides of the boat about 4 metres deep into 8 metres of water. We were watching the full moon rise through ribbons of cloud over the mainland mountains. Mars rose orange in the East. Brilliant Jupiter appeared over Vancouver Island in the South with smaller, dimmer Saturn a little further Southeast. Silver moonlight lit the sky. Below, a calm silky ocean shimmered, where the occasional belch of a seal or cry of a gull drifted across the water. Moonight revealed the mainland contours on one side of the Strait and Vancouver Island on the other as far as we could see. Blooms of neon purple, green, red, indigo, yellow and white flowered over both shores chased by muted boombiddy-booms as adults and children around the Salish Sea gathered to enjoy the Halloween fireworks displays.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to this whale who was quite far away – probably 6 – 8 km. You can hear the sea splashing against the hull. The odd creaks and knocks are the boat rudder knocking and the crackles are shrimp talking on the bottom under the boat! One whale is singing all the notes – the very high squeaks and the low growls. He is practising his song for performing in Mexico or Hawaii. The song becomes more complex and developed in December before the whales leave on their southern migration.
It was Magic – perfect for a Halloween reverie accompanied by the haunting music coming through from the hydrophones. was this music the eerie wails of long departed souls? or aliens trying to communicate with receptive earthlings? No. The ghoulish notes in my headphones were the eerie wails of eerie WHALES – Whales who are very much alive on planet Earth right now. This is the music of humpback whales you are hearing. They’re practising their song here in the Salish Sea of BC before they begin their long migration to Mexico or Hawaii or even Japan. Once they have perfected their song, which slowly changes every year, they will perform it in the warm waters of their southern destinations.
No human knows why humpback whales sing or what the whales are singing about. Only the males sing and a singing male will attract other males who will often join in the song. In the 5 years we’ve been listening underwater for vocalizing humpback whales in the Salish Sea, the end of October and beginning of November are the only times we’ve heard any vocalizing at all. It’s another whale mystery that, along with so many whale mysteries, only adds to the awe that 2 tiny, curious humans feel when in the presence of these majestic beings.
Undoubtedly whale biologists feel it too, even while they conduct precise, tightly structured investigations and analyze the data. Whales are so much like us. Mothers feed, care for, teach and protect their babies. Whales often hunt and feed together with every whale having a prescribed job. They socialize and play with friends. Male Humpbacks sing and compose complicated songs. Whales from different areas have different languages, cultures and food preferences. They communicate vocally and with body language. But here is where we begin to differ. Aside from the obvious differences of size and body shape whales and humans have evolved very different physiologies in order to thrive on land or in the sea. We both have 2 eyes and 2 ears but what whales see and hear both underwater and above the water is very different from what humans see and hear. We humans do not have nostrils on top of our heads or mouths that gape open to our bellies while consuming more than 1 ton of fish per day.
Here is the biggest mystery of all in my humble opinion: Whales and dolphins are conscious breathers. They have to be awake in order to breathe. But, like every other mammal, they must sleep and dream. So they have evolved a clever work-around to allow them to sleep and breathe simultaneously. All dolphins and whales sleep with only 1/2 of their brain at a time. One hemisphere is off in dreamland while the other is monitoring the immediate environment and initiating breathing in realtime. Have you ever woken in the middle of the night and hovered in that half asleep/half awake horizon where dream characters populate your consciousness but you are also aware that you are in bed? or that the click you are hearing is your digital clock? or that you might have to pee? Is that how whales experience their sleeptime? I wonder what kind of consciousness that produces in whales?
And here is the real kicker. Humans have been learning about our planet from other animals and plants forever. We also use their special gifts to help us thrive in the environments we share. We use a dog’s sense of smell and hearing to help us hunt. We use the hawk’s eyes to scan the landscape. We tune in to the alarms of birds to notify us of predators in the forest. Plants, trees and fungi transform minerals and vitamins in soil and water into compounds that our cells can use to keep us healthy.
So why sit here in front of your screen googling for information on the internet when you can be outside letting your dog take you for a walk through a park or forest? Have you sat with your cat on the porch or balcony or slightly opened window of an apartment? Can you observe what she’s observing? Lots of folks can watch flowers, or fish, or listen to birds for hours. Try it. The world you’ll discover is the world that goes on around us 24/7, mostly unnoticed by humans.
As the dominant large animal species on Earth today we get lost in our own human stories. We root out ways we are different from each other while we are surrounded by beings who are more different from us than any human is from any other human. And what a cornucopia of differences there is – so many ways of perceiving the universe, more than we can ever know. So many stories to explore. Find someone to share your adventures and stories with. You will be constantly amazed as well as amused – and healthier and happier in the bargain.
July 2020 #5 – Playtime with Spotlight & Calf!
We moored Blue Parrot on the dock with her nose toward shore. At low tide with a NW wind blowing us towards moored boats in shallow water it’s a bit tricky getting off. We time for a gust to blow Blue P off the dock and pull a 270° turn to head out into Evans Bay. The NW wind sweeps across low terrain on Read Island from Hoskyns Channel, Johnson Strait and Bute Inlet. White caps on the crests of short steep waves rile up the mouth of the bay. Wind and waves blow us around the point all the way into Burdwood Bay.
Terry assesses the possibility of an anchorage for later tonight. “Looks good at low tide here. I think we’ll be OK. Let’s head out.” Blue P angles across the frothing mouth of Evans Bay to the Penn Islands. We’re getting ready to raise the sails when the water suddenly flattens and the wind dies. “Typical” Jude mutters as another attempt to sail is foiled yet again.
All thoughts of sailing evaporate as we spot 2 humpies close to the shore of the middle Penn. They’re moving slowly, making their way around the outside island closest to Cortes. “Sleeping” Terry notes wryly. He notices one of the whale watching boats emerging from Whale Passage and reports the whales. We decide to move a little closer when “What was that? Up ahead – a breach – towards Von Donnop” We hear the WHHOOMP of WHALE hitting Water. “Let’s Go!” Jude steers Blue P over as the whale watchers speed past.
We approach slowly and cut the engine “Is that a baby?” Terry wonders “Yes! A Mom and Calf! Look! The baby is breaching – she can’t quite make it all the way out of the water” —–“Is this a good position?” Jude calls to Terry who is perched precariously on Blue P’s bow manouvering carefully around the furled jib.
“WHOAH!” Mom is tail lobbing. Half her body is up out of the water. Baby is so close it looks as if Mom is going to land on top of herm – but she doesn’t. “Looks like they’re playing” Terry shouts during a brief lull in activity. He’s performing some fancy footwork to keep the whales in focus as they circle around Blue P at about 100 meters. Their play is so exuberant and Baby’s ingenue breaches are so adorable. Then Mom BREACHES – WHHHHUUMMMPPPP! The SIZE of HER!! There are no words equal to the AWESOMENESS of a 40 TON WHALE leaping clear out of the ocean into the air. “Sky Hopping” as our friend Martha thought it was called – A much better description of defying gravity!
So special to finally witness a Mom and Calf playing together like this. We are so juiced! We’ve waited 5 years for this moment – and to capture it on film so we can share it with you was worth every minute of boredom and discomfort.
Mom and Calf are moving north. They’re getting farther away as the wind blows Blue P south. Then “Looks like playtime is over. They seem to be resting now”. Terry observes. “Heads up!” Jude calls. She swings Blue P around in the direction of a nearby cove where half a dozen boats are congregating. “There are a couple of whales over there. Maybe they’ve finished sleeping” We hang around with them for a while but they’re not interested in people. They dive and easily give us all the slip.
Meanwhile it’s getting pretty windy so we decide to head back towards our evening anchorage. Evans Bay has once again erupted in white caps and heavy winds. We angle across the waves, navigating around another whale who is also crossing. “Happy sailing friend”
There are 2 other sailboats already anchored in Burdwood Bay so anchoring is a bit tight. But it’s protected from the NW waves and the gusts will blow us off shore not towards the other boats, so we settle in for the night.