Voyage to the Whales [antikvár]

PREFACE TULIP'S VOYAGE TO THE SPERM WHALES of the Indian Ocean was an immensely powerful experience for all of us who sailed on board her. It introduced me to one of the largest and most unusual animals on earth in more intimate terms than I had ever known any other. We sailed with the sperm whales night and day; we swam with them and were present when one was bom. But the whales, although the goal of the Tulip Project, were only one part of the voyage. We encountered other unusual and intriguing animals, sailed to strange and exciting countries and fought our way through an almost endless sequence of obstacles. During the voyage close relationships grew between us, and were sometimes destroyed. For me it was both a wonderful but immensely difficult experience. As 1 started to write this book, partly as a catharsis, 1 wanted to describe "what it was really like out there," fi-om the most mundane routine of living on a small boat at sea, to the finest and foulest moments. As I showed people drafts, it became clear that the detailed descriptions of bureaucratic complexities, of engine failure and personal relationships, were usually boring for those who had not taken part in the project and sometimes offensive for those who had. So this book focuses more on the exceptional and exciting parts of our voyage, on the whales themselves, the ocean and our more dramatic disasters. Most readers will have themselves experienced, in some form or other, the frustrations of officialism and persistently unreliable technology, as well as the intensity of personal relationships when people are living and working in very close quarters. If you can magnify these experiences and lay them over what I describe of our voyage, I hope that you will gain a feeling for both the wonder and difficulty of our times with the whales.