Had great day at sea, gotta share it! This time of year Sitka is the focal point of a humpback whale migration. up to 100 humpback will migrate through Sitka sound... they come here to feed up before beginng the long trip to Hawaii to give birth and mate. Though a large pod (50) has been feeding about 7 miles out only recently have the whales come into the protected waters of Silver Bay. The forecast called for 45 mph winds overnight decreasing to 25mph but the morning. Luckily the winds never showed up (just the rain) so a friend, Bruce,and I jumped in our boats and went a whaling. First though we encounted a sea lion. he surfaced in front of my boat with a small halibut in his mouth and began to eat and play. He (?) would take a few bites then sling it across the water skipping it like a stone, then chase after and chew and toss it again! A group of seagulls began to circle above snatching up the leftovers. All at once an eagle joined in the fray and swooped down to steal the fish from the sealion. I didn't think the eagle had much of a chance but the second the sealion saw it he ducked under ands we never saw him again. Soon in the distance we saw spouts and headed in that general direction. For Bruce this was his first experience with whales. The humpbacks when feeding will surface and spout several times taking in air for the next dive. Then they will hump up their backs and lift their tails high and dive deep. Since there is no way of predicting where they will come up next we paddled to the general area they were in. Much to our surprise they surface just behing us long before we reached where we thought they were. The explosion of their spouts made Bruce about jump out of his seat! We stopped and watched as the three whales , probably females guessing from their size and behavior, as they "caught their breath" about 40 yards from us. Then as we sat there watching they began to move closer to us passing about 20 yards in front of us. What a sight! Probably 40 feet long and 40 tons a piece! They dove down and we saw the back sides of their tails. Each whale has unique marking on the underside of their tails. Of these three, two had striking almost all white tails! Also we quickly got wind of the whale...their breath was ghastly! Krill breath! yuck! do they sell Scope in 55 gallon drums? They surfaced a few more times in the distance and Bruce and I paddled around to stay warm (temp low 40's and heavy rain at times). Just when we were about to call it quits they surfaced again just ahead and to the left. Again they when to pass right in front of us. However as they did one of the whales stopped and floated at the surface for at least a minute. At this point it was only three boat lengths in front of me. I could hear the music from the Twilight Zone playing as .......THE WATCHER BECAME THE WATCHED! It was an erie feeling knowing this whale was checking us out! Then the whale sharply right and began to swim towards us! I had never seen a whale do this before so it was a very uncertain moment. ( the music switched to Jaws!) If a moment can be both exciting and frightening this one certainly was. Call it a Jonah moment if you will. I was ready to do a paddle brace if necessary (or should I say do a whale of a brace?) I knew though that if there was going to be a collision that I was likely to wind up in the water. Thankfully when the whale got about one boat length away it turned away. I have had whales close before when I happened to be in the direction they were traveling but this is the first time I had one turn directly towards me. Bruce and I decided we needed to move on before the whales decided to check us out closer. We went our way and the whales went theirs. It rained heavily as we paddled back but the we didn't care. We both were cherishing the memory of a life time. Bob Sitka P.S. Do you know what the story of Jonah is all about? It shows that you just can't keep a good man down. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Thanks for a great story Bob! It makes me want to take another trip to Alaska. I have paddled many places, but Alaska is in a class of its own. Parts of SE Alaska possess an extraordinary concentration wildlife and scenery. This makes for a very intense paddling experience. I can certainly understand why Melissa has a longing to move there (and I don't think that it has much to do with Doug LLoyd's reference to black-bearded gents). :-) Dan Hagen Bellingham, Washington *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Dan Hagen wrote: -snip- >>I can certainly understand why Melissa has a longing to move there (and I don't think that it has much to do with Doug LLoyd's reference to black-bearded gents). :-)<< Quite right Dan. Good men can be found in many places (and besides, I kind of prefer clean shaven faces - though one just never knows), but Alaska can only be found in Alaska (hmmm... something like that). All my life, when I've closed my eyes and imagined the most wonderful places, it has always come out looking like some part of Alaska. I've been to a few places up there and have not been disappointed. I do also enjoy the company of people who love to live in places like that. My main problem in putting my next baroque ensemble together, and basing it up there, is to convince a few musician friends of mine who are used to living in places like NYC, Paris, and Amsterdam, that it's actually possible to live in a place like Alaska (and not even in Anchorage). I've spent most of my life in those big cities, and though I do love many things about them, and even miss some things (and friends), I can no longer imagine living in places like that when there are places like Alaska to live in instead. I still need my occasional "big city fix", but that's what airports are for. It's a beautiful sunny day here, so I'm going paddling with my whale friends. By the way, Reverend Bob, I'm quite used to "whale breath showers", and I just keep telling myself that anything that smells like that had better at least be good for my hair! :-) I love the whales too much to stay away from them, and can't always stay upwind of them, so whale breath is just a part of my life. Oh well. Melissa *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Rev. Bob Carter wrote: > Just when we were > about to call it quits they surfaced again just ahead and to the left. Again > they when to pass right in front of us. However as they did one of the whales > stopped and floated at the surface for at least a minute. At this point it was > only three boat lengths in front of me. I could hear the music from the > Twilight Zone playing as .......THE WATCHER BECAME THE WATCHED! > > > It was an erie feeling knowing this whale was checking us out! In July I did a 10-day paddling trip in Newfoundland's Notre Dame Bay with my friends Bob and Chris. About 18 miles into a 24 mile day, we encountered a lone Minke whale (it seems like they were always alone.) This was about the third one we had seen in as many days. Even when we stopped in their vicinity, they ignored us and we rarely saw them for more than a few minutes before they disappeared altogether. This time, though, we stopped paddling and sat there hoping the whale would stay in the area. After its initial surfacing, it submerged, only to pop up about ten yards away on our right. It then proceeded to circle us, submerging briefly, coming up behind us, on our left, in the front again and again for about 5-6 circles always within 10 yars or so. The water was so clear that we could often see the whale below the surface, and could also see interesting patterns left on the water by its flukes as it passed under. During one of its circlings, it brought its entire head out of the water, apparently to give us a good look. We sat there too stunned to say anything other than to point again and again to where it as surfacing. We decided to continue on our way, and began paddling. The whale surfaced in front of us, then behind us, then on our right, and again on our left, staying with us. We couldn't paddle away and give up the moment, so we stopped again. And again, the whale circled us once. At the end, I looked down under my boat and saw it swim underneath me about 20 feet down. It continued to my left and under Bob's boat, surfaced to his left rear and headed away, finally leaving us weak and speechless I had been in the same water with whales a few times in British Columbia, but they (humpbacks and grays) had always ignored us or moved away. I think (I'm no expert) that minkes are usually pretty shy. If so, then ours was clearly an unusual encounter. Regardless, it made our day too. Roger Voeller *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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