Sunday started out with the usual sideways rain that I^Òve come to associate with the West Coast of Vancouver Island on Easter weekend. Jane and I could be found comfortably holed up and drinking tea under a tarp on Willis Island in the Broken Group. The wind had kept us off the water on Saturday and the forecast for this day was calling for 20 knot winds from the south west in the morning then later backing to the north west. We faced a 6 NM exposed crossing of Loudoun Channel to get back to the truck at our launch point at Toquart Bay, roughly north west of us. The channel didn^Òt look too bad from where we were sitting and when the rain started to ease we decided to make a break for it before the wind swung around into our faces. We tore down camp and were on the water in less than an hour. The wind had eased to about 15 knots and the rain was now consisting of just the odd intermittent shower. The waves were on our back quarter, around 2 ^Ö 3 feet in height with the odd one breaking just to make things interesting. It was a great ride and after about an hour and half we were nearing the Stopper Islands on the other side of the channel. The sea lions hauled out on the Islands were making an incredible amount of noise that could be heard miles away. We were going to go and have a closer look at them when I spotted a whale spout about a mile away in the channel that runs between the Stoppers and Vancouver Island. We changed course and headed in that direction passing between St. Innes and the Stopper Islands. The wind was still blowing but we were now in the shelter of the islands so the waves were much smaller. I saw the whale surface a few more times and I thought that maybe it was a minke as it didn^Òt look very big. On the way around the south end of the Stoppers we passed within a few hundred meters of another sea lion haul out. I was thinking what an amazing paddle; the sea lions were barking and growling, the trees were dotted with eagles, there were huge rafts of seabirds all around (auklets, I think) and a whale was spouting directly in front of us. Beautiful. I didn^Òt want to approach the whale too closely because, not only is it illegal but it^Òs very poor manners, so when we were mid channel and a few hundred metres away from where I last spotted him I stopped paddling and pulled out my 35mm from it^Òs waterproof case. The wind was blowing us roughly in the direction the truck anyway so we just sat there and drifted hoping to sight the whale again. I nervously tapped on the hull of the boat to let the whale know where we were so he wouldn't surface underneath us. Suddenly the whale, now identified as a grey whale and no longer looking very small at all, surfaced 10 metres off my port bow. After my heart kicked back in I managed to snap off a few photos. To my amazement this continued for another hour. Us drifting along, the whale surfacing always on the port bow, always 10 to 15 metres away. There was no mistaking that the big fella was following us! All of this with the chattering of eagles and the whirr of seabirds in the background. I couldn't help thinking of the Makah natives to the south and wonder how they could justify killing these beautiful animals. I don't want to get political, but it just doesn't seem right somehow. Eventually, growing bored I guess, the whale fell off behind to leave us on our own again. We resumed our paddle back to Toquart Bay. As we rounded the last headland to our destination we were greeted with the sound of loud rap music coming from the direction of our take out point. Some youths had set up a tarp city and were well into a weekend long party. On retrieving my truck Jane noticed that somebody had stolen a pair of kayak cradles from the roof racks. Welcome back to civilization. Sigh. Steve Davis Victoria, BC _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Steve Davis wrote: > Suddenly the whale, now identified as > a grey whale and no longer looking very small at all, surfaced 10 metres off > my port bow. After my heart kicked back in I managed to snap off a few > photos. To my amazement this continued for another hour. Us drifting along, > the whale surfacing always on the port bow, always 10 to 15 metres away. Couple years ago in mid-June, there was a good-size gray whale doodling around __inside__ Benson, showing no concern about kayakers in the near vicinity. Could be the same whale, inasmuch the one I saw was probably a "resident." -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:28 PDT