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September 14, 2005
To slow for playing
Tuesday, 13.09.
We do our watches, look at the sunrise, have some coffee, watch the calm sea, hardly pass any other ships, look around, have some breakfast, watch the sea. Sometimes you think you see something but usually it's just a wave and your imagination. But wasn't that a fin? Looking closer it comes up again and then even a second and a third one. The whales are crossing in front of the ship and then passing slowly alongside in some distance. Dimi says they must be about nine or ten meters long but we don't know which species it is. Already further away one is blowing a fountain and then they are not seen anymore.
It's so great to be able to see something like that!
But even that shouldn't be all for this day. In the early afternoon we spot a school of dolphines. It's a big species, about four meters, at least eight of them. We slow down and steer towards them. They don't take off but come towards us and nosily start to swim around Anna. We can watch them really well in the clear water. Two of them are swiming directly in front of the bow, but we seem to be to slow for them to play in our bow wave. Their bodys look really scratched but Dimi says it's typical for this species. There is even a mother with a baby. The baby trys to get near the ship as well but the mother always keeps it in save distance. The two are always coming up and going down simutaniously, if from our point of view the little one is behind the big one you cant't even see it.
Heiner follows them slowly with the ship, but they seem to be taking off. It's Dimi who is clapping and whistleing them back again and they take some extra tours around the ship. Kina is a little bit anoyed because she's trying to film the dolphines but everybody is talking so excited that it's impossible for her just to get the snorting dolphines without our excited voices.
Finally they take off for good, leaving us really happy and excited behind. We continue our way to Libanon, catching sight of Beirut around three o'clock in the afternoon. It's not easy to identify the harbour form the water side and there are not many ships who could give us a hint where the entrace is. Franck tries to remeber form when he was checking the harbour weeks earlier from landside and so we manage to find the exclusive city harbour where we are going to stay from now on almost a week.
Lama from the Lebanese Greenpeace office is already there, they saw us coming in form the office. A long procedure of immigartion starts for Anna and us but after all it's manly paper work the asingned agent is doing for us.
We are very warm wellcomed be the Lebanese Greenpeacers, who after all of us having taken a shower are taking us out to a real lebanese place to have a typical dinner. It was a fun night in a new country and I'm courious to see what's happening the next days in Beirut.
Written by
Dorothea
Posted by Hussein at September 14, 2005 4:00 PM