Six miles off the coast of Dominica Maaike and Peter get to see a 20 metre long sperm whale weighing at least 40 tons. Every six minutes he blows a cloud of steam at least 5 to 6 metres high in the air. It is a male. The females don't get any bigger than about 12 metres and a weight of about 13 tons. Andrew Armour, the manager of the Anchorage Hotel, is happy. His hobby and trademark is diving and whale watching and he had promised to show the Duchies a whale. He beams contentedly. "I told you so. When the winter arrives they are always here. Whole groups of them, sometimes as many as fourteen or fifteen together. It is obvious that the male is preparing himself for a deep dive. They can go down to a depth of 2000 metres and easily stay below for an hour. It is unbelievable.... Look at his tail. See how it moves?"

Suddenly the magnificent body folds downward. The tail with its characteristic markings that are different for every whale slowly points skywards. Then without so much as a splash he disappears into the depths. Together with the divers Fitzroy Armour and doctor Harvey Bernard who want to take some pictures. No they won't let us come along. Not enough experience with sperm whales. The sperm whale is a very sociable animal that enjoys frolicking around the ocean in a group. The males play with the children who are further looked after by the barren older females. They rub their tails against each other or simply roll them upside down. Using load clicking and squeaking noises they tell each other stories and make love to the females with the result that one and a half years later a new calf is born. These youngsters are breast fed for several years.
"Did you know that one third of the body of a sperm whale is taken up by the head? And that they have the largest brain of all animals on earth?"
No, we didn't know that.
"Did you know that solitary males cruise up and down the Northern Atlantic Ocean? From Canada to Spain and from the Azores and the Caribbean to Iceland."
We didn't know that either. And this biggest whale in the world that has real teeth is totally safe if you don't bother him or make him mad.

"Generally speaking sperm whales keep their distance. Only a solitary male can give you some trouble. Don't go too close."
He advises sailor's who suddenly find themselves in the middle of a group of sperm whales as follows: Switch on your engine, so they can hear that something is approaching them. Never come close under sail. They experience creeping up on them in a sneaky way as threatening. Just calmly motor away from them. Do not make any unexpected changes in course and don't suddenly rev up your engine or put it in reverse. You can also stay in one place while your engine is running. The whales will then just simply swim past. If they approach you stay at the same speed and continue on a parallel course while slowly turning away from them. And if possible stay behind and never come close too the young whales, don't hang around for longer than thirty minutes and keep a distance of a least fifty to one hundred metres. "If you notice that the group is getting irritated leave immediately. You will notice this soon enough as the whales will start turning away from you, will dive without lifting their tails in the air, will start to swim faster and will stop m
aking their typical clicking sounds. A grown up whale can easily sink a yacht."

Maaike and Peter remembered his advise a few days later when they were overhauled by an enormous male. They were doing about 11.6 knots and the whale passed them doing at least twice that speed.
"As if out of nowhere he emerged from a wave close behind us maybe only about 20 metres away." Maaike says with awe still in her voice. "He passed us like a bullet and just simply disappeared. There was no time to be afraid. You are more surprised and awed as this majestic streamlined animal that looks like a submarine goes past. But we are also sure that if it were to get angry and throw all it 40 tons against our yacht we would be lucky to make it into our life-raft alive."
Peter can second that emotion. "During one of my earlier trips across the Pacific in a 20 ton steel fifty footer I was rammed by a sperm whale r possibly it was the other way around. Whatever, I am sure it was accidental. The boat was travelling at 8 knots but was stopped in its tracks and turned around a full 90 degrees."