God's will! I pray thee wish not one more. For the best I have. O' do not wish one more! That he which hath no stomach for this trip, Let them depart. We would not paddle in the company of those that fear the weather and the sea. But we'll remember what feats we saw. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. And those gentle souls abed in Victoria Shall think themselves accused that they were not there when we speak of the whales! O' the whales! My apologies to the Bard. A little more then a month ago I started planning this overnight camping trip to Pender Island - one of the Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. The launch date was to be Saturday March the 2nd and I readily admit that I was looking forward to some rotten weather - lumpy seas are more fun. My plan was met with some degree of enthusiasm from many of our paddling partners. At one time six would be paddlers had indicated they would like to come along. Then three dropped out. Then two more stepped up only to withdraw at the last moment. Saturday morning while many members of the Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club slept John Levy, the not so ancient mariner, Stephen, "I don't need to be rescued" Davis and Gordin "Waddy" Warner were busy packing their boats for the first overnighter of the season. Maybe it was the fear of inclement weather that kept so many at home. Or perhaps it was the call of the couch. Nevertheless these three, these few where there for an incredible whale encounter. We were out about 30 minutes from the launch site where the Anacortez ferry ties up in Sidney when Steve spotted a pod of Orcas between Dock and Forest Island. While John helped Steve get a camera out of the day hatch I paddled on. I watched them still quite a ways off tail slapping and spy hopping. Then they disappeared and I feared they had gone down the opposite side of Forest Island. When they resurfaced the entire pod was coming straight for us. There was a large bull with a huge dorsal fin, two females and two calves. Steve convinced us they were transients. When he gets his photos developed we'll forward them on to see if they can be identified. We stayed where we were while the whales just swam around us. They were clearly feeding on something deep below the surface. Little droplets of oil (blubber) would appear from time to time which led us to conclude that they might be feeding on a seal. The gulls kept diving for small bits of bio mass that would float to the surface. This stuff was pink with clear signs of blood and veins but it was really masticated. There must have been 50 gulls over head. I don't know how many tail slaps we witnessed. One whale swam under Steve's kayak and surfaced about fifteen feet past his boat. The calves would sometimes breach and on a couple occasions nursed. A female would surface and roll onto her side while a calf nursed. The bull was huge. His dorsal fin was almost two meters high. Eventually Catherine and Allan, two members from the club, paddled out from Sidney and joined us in watching the pod. After about 15 minutes they left and we continued to watch. After about an hour we started to paddle off to the northeast. For a while the whales paced along with us but eventually they swung off to the northwest. It was a very wonderful encounter. We made Reay Island about and hour behind schedule had lunch and pushed on for Pender. The ocean was quite flat with little wind. The balance of the paddle to say the least was anticlimactic. We made Beaumont Park on South Pender late in the afternoon and lazed about, set up camp, had supper in the early evening followed by a great fire down on the beach. Lots of stars, and lots of good conversation until we turned in just after 10. Sunday morning, very early long before sun up, we had a light rain but nothing serious. We enjoyed a warm breakfast, broke camp and headed out just after 9. South Pender has some really beautiful homes on it. In this regard it's clearly different then North Pender which has the maximum number of homes that can possibly be squeezed into the smallest possible space. We circumnavigated South Pender. Had lunch on a public beach at the extreme southeast point then made the seven nautical mile crossing, just skimming across the top of Boundary Pass and Turn Point, to Reay Island in just over two hours. If anything the ocean was even flatter then on Saturday. At our planning meeting earlier in the week, we discussed this area with some concern, as it's usually cross hatched with conflicting currents. Add in passing freighter wakes and it can be a worrisome spot. But not on Sunday. It was like a lake. We where over taken by one outbound container ship that passed closer to the American shore (Stewart Island) but even so it's passing created a significant wake. After a short break on Reay we headed for home over taking a number of yachts that were becalmed in the middle of Sidney Channel. We'd been watching this very fruitless yacht race for about two hours. We even got a congratulatory blast on the horn when we passed the race marshal, anchored just off the Beacon Street pier in Sidney, and why not we'd overt taken many of the boats. While March is clearly to early a date to start camping and paddling for some there are amazing advantageous. No one else is in the camp ground, no one to tell you where to pitch your tent, fewer boats on the water and best of all, at least on this trip, no whale watching zodiacs. Gordin Warner *************************************************************************** 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. 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