Sal was returning home from the Post office yesterday when a humpback whale rose near her small boat.  It blew, it rolled and it dove.  Sal was gobsmacked.

Sal’s boat is 11 feet long maybe a bit over 4 feet wide.  It has a six to eight inch freeboard.  For me, it is just a small step up from a surfboard but for the featherweight that is my wife, it is simply ‘sporty’.  Like a Miata.  She thinks it is perfect.  She stopped the engine and watched.

And she called me on her walkie-talkie.

The whale ‘humped’ near her and dove under her boat.  She was describing it’s actions but stopped (as usual) in mid-sentence as it passed beneath her.

“Sal?  Sal?  You there?  You OK?  Sal?”

“OHhhhhh…..Myyyyyy……Gaaaaawd!”

“What?  WHAT?!!  YOU OK!!??”

My wife (bless her little heart) is of the opinion that phones, walkie-talkies and cell-phones are intrusions on real life experience.  If she is busy having a real life experience, the communication device is forgotten.  Completely.  That is to say, IF she has it turned on at all – a less than fifty-fifty likelihood.

So, I got nothing.

Silence.

Not even static.

I went for the binoculars.  Couldn’t see her.

“Sal?”

Basically whales are pretty benign creatures, Moby Dick notwithstanding.  I wasn’t really afraid for her.  But then again, it was a whale.  And Sal is a feather.  In a teacup!  And she was NOT answering her walkie-talkie.

“Sal?  Sal?  You there?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………Oh yeah.  Just on my way home.  See you in a few minutes.  Just gonna hang out here for a bit and watch the whale.  No worries…………..”