We went out for a sail on Saturday. Light winds and calm seas. We had to fight the incoming tide to get out to the big pond and when we finally made it past the bar the wind died completely. I looked out across a glassy sea without a cats paw in sight when suddenly a dark shape broke the surface 10° off the bow and 500 yards ahead. Whale ho, I shouted. Suddenly things were lively on deck. Roberta assumed her whale lookout position standing just ahead of the mast eyes on high alert, scanning in every direction. I motored a bit then turned south (the direction our leviathan was headed). He rewarded our patience by surfacing several times in the next half hour in our vicinity. Once he was even within a few boat lengths directly abeam. He waved his flukes every time he dove. Very cool. That compensated very nicely for the lack of wind. With no wind we didn't stay out too long and as we crossed the bar on the way in we spotted a sturgeon twice. Pre-historic looking things. If we only had some fog it could have been a sea monster story. That's the way it was on the Oregon coast this past Saturday. Not much wind, but plenty of wildlife. Mark and Roberta M23 Faith