Playing For The Other Team

/in /by

So I met this guy the other night who claimed he saved a whale earlier in the day… hah! Oh how the stories fly after a cerveza or two at the bars in Mexico. Really, this guy – we’ll call him ‘Pete’ – said that he alone, wielding a knife, cut one of the beasts free of a net in which it had become ensnared.

Right. And I walked on the moon, paddled into Waimea before anyone knew about it, and surfed my Westsail 32 at 20+ knots…


“No, really, it happened… it’s on YouTube,” that ‘Pete’ told me. So the next day, at an idle moment, curiosity got the best of me and click click click, and whadda’ ya know… there in the great digital library, in the bastion of truth, was the proof that ‘Pete’ was a whale lover. I know there was something about that guy that I didn’t like… I mean, really, sympathy for the boat-killers??? (for those of you who don’t know, see here for the full story).

Ok, seriously, pretty cool. Whales abound in Puerto Vallarta, and it gets to the point where we don’t think twice when we see them. But kudos to Pete and company. Not only did they notice that the whale wasn’t moving, but they checked it out and saw that it was stuck in a net. And apparently the net was anchored and/or caught on the bottom, so the whale wasn’t going anywhere, and seemed to be having a hard time just getting to the surface to get air.
So ‘Pete’ goes out there in this little blow up boat and floats right over the whale cutting it free. Pretty cool to see it swim away in the video, and must have felt good to the whole rescue team. I wish I could remember the boat name (that cerveza thing again), but it was something appropriate, like “Cutting Loose” or “Breaking Free” (apologies in advance to the skipper and crew, because I am sure I butchered the name, but it’s ‘Pete’s’ fault. I’m not sure why, but it is).
Cheers everyone,
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team