[Paddlewise] Chasin' the Blues away

Boy, I'm tired.
Duane Strosaker asked me if I wanted to go out on a whale hunt today, so at
10:00 this morning I arrived to a layer of fog at Dana Point harbor.
Visibility was still pretty good and it was nice to think we'd have a break
from the sun.

We headed out through a quiet harbor and Duane told me I'd be leading this
hunt. He wanted to sit back and have someone tell him where to go for once!
We headed SW from the jetty and by the time we took our first break, my arms
were feeling pretty tired. I don't usually lead paddles and with Duane
behind me, I think I was trying to keep up too high a pace. He mentioned
that he was having to work to stay up with me, so I was glad to realize I
could slow down a bit. Because of the fog, I had decided to bring my $2
suction cup compass that's usually attached to my windshield, but it didn't
seem to be helping me stay on a straight course. It didn't help that it
wouldn't stick to the middle peaked deck of my kayak and so had to be stuck
off to the side a bit. We may have wandered a bit, especially when we got to
talking and I didn't bother to watch where I was going.

We still made it off the point at our easier pace, but then someone stole
our blanket of fog. The heat of the day rained down on us, with nothing much
on the horizon to bring us hope. We continued on a westerly direction with a
seal and some dolphins as the only hint of life around us. We were both
feeling the heat and it seemed our hunt was going to be a short one. Duane
had thought he'd seen something at our 12:00 and after a little more
paddling, I thought I saw it too. It took a bit more paddling and staring
before we were able to believe our own eyes--some health spouting perhaps
less then a mile out. When you've been skunked a bit lately, seeing that
first spout no matter how far out really make up for a lot of work and
wonder. We start off at a good pace hoping just to get a little closer view
if we could.

After a short chase the whales came up again. Once again in this area, it
seemed to be a mother and calf. Each large spout and breaching back would be
followed somewhat from behind by another small spout. Each sighting spurred
us to paddle farther out, but even though we got close enough for some good
view, they always seemed to be heading away from us. We paddled through
whale poop, which always seems to give you confidence you're in the right
area. We chased them through about 8 different sightings in different areas,
as the headed south and then disappeared and finally came up north of us at
a pace we had no intention of trying to emulate.

We were quite satisfied with our hunt, but now found ourselves quite far
from shore and none the better for the heat and activity. We paddled home
slowly, stopping often to hydrate. Duane, fearing I was about ready to
percolate asked if I wanted to borrow his bow to roll a bit to cool off. I
decided I might as well do my first off shore roll and although it took
three tries, I was back up after my pause that refreshes. Of course, I tried
again with less success and Duane had to hurry in with an ugly bow rescue
that gave me plenty of time to cool off.

After that it was just the long slog back to a harbor that seemed to be
swimming away from us just like the whales. Neither of us are the biggest
fans of summer paddling, but you do what you gotta do and we made it to the
harbor with a bit of energy to spare. It wasn't the closest we ever gotten
to the whales, but we had the satisfaction of a long chase and many
sightings which brings the hope of more to come. Duane stayed at the harbor
to do some rolling practice and I headed home to recuperate for my next
adventure.

Mark Sanders
www.sandmarks.net
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