The Most Awesome of Eating Contests, pt. 2

While the sea wolf hunt went on, the other contestant hunted his own soon-to-be-one-step-closer-to-extinct prey. Knowing that while the shear ferocity of the wolf might not be easily matched, the elusiveness and challenge of the hunt certainly could.

Laying the line of bait behind him, the man's raft slowly drifted through the frigid Antarctic waters. Clutching his only weapon -- a harpoon gun, tip bloodied with the gore of lesser animals from the past few days, killed for limited sustenance -- close to his chest, the raft bobbed along, awaiting the critical moment. Suddenly, from behind, a tail wider than the man arose from the water, and from above a sudden spray of water -- the prey was here! The man, unfazed by the might of his opponent, rushed toward his 100 ft meal: the blue whale.

Leaping from his raft onto the back of the whale, he quickly sprinted towards the head, his tracted boots making balance possible if difficult. Arriving at the skull, the man carefully pointed the harpoon gun down, aiming for a fatal blow through the brain. Sensing the danger, the blue whale bucked forward, throwing the man a few feet closer to the front of this monster. Lashing out once more, the whale quickly tried to lick the man off its face. Barely able to dodge the lethal 3-ton tongue, his arm is hit and, far more importantly, the harpoon gun lost to the frozen ocean. As the whale began to turn, feeling that its battle was won, the man slid down the side of its head, desperately reaching out in an attempt to grasp something solid -- and, to his surprise, succeeding. Instantly glancing up to see his savior, his eyes light upon an ancient whaling harpoon, at least 150 years old, embedded in the side of the whale. Knowing he has but seconds before his fate is sealed, with a titanic shove the harpoon sinks in a few more feet. An unprecedented roar rips across the waters as blood gushes out, the whale feebly shaking its last.

Climbing on top his prize, his own raft now destroyed, the man skins a small portion of the whale, revealing enough nutritious blubber to sustain himself during the ride home. Whale skin mounted onto a harpoon as a limited sail, the man begins the journey to the coast of Chile to begin the next portion of the contest.

[cont in part 3]