Mark and I packed our bag and drove downtown, where we spent the next two days pretending not to be locals. (Except for the quick trip home, when I realized he only had 5 glucometer strips left in his kit.) It was really fun--we swam in the hotel pool, walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and stayed up late watching movies. Mark even participated in the ever-famous bed-jumping competition, where I am proud to announce he won first prize. (OK, fine, he was the only contestant--I was capturing the moment on film--err, memory card.)
It was back to the pool on Monday morning, but we spent our afternoon on a whale watch. That's right, we boarded a harbor cruise boat in search of the elusive blue whale (OK, maybe not THAT elusive--they'd spotted four whales earlier in the day). As we waited in line, the ship's captain announced no less than seven times that the blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on earth, and can swallow an elephant whole (although I'm not sure that scenario is very likely to ever occur).
We weren't even out of the harbor when we spotted our first marine mammals--a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins frolicking and jumping. I was so excited to see them that I felt like a sell-out--here I'd paid to see whales, and I was cheering for the first thing I saw (somethin' shiny).
Next, we saw a bunch of harbor seals lounging on the rocks, watching us curiously. The closer the boat got, the more they looked like they might dive into the water, but laziness eventually won out, and they simply stared back at us staring at them.
Then it was out to sea, beyond the harbor. We saw another pod of dolphins, common dolphins this time, who surfed the wake from our ship. Then we cruised around for the better part of an hour and saw...nothing.
No whales, no dolphins, no nothing. It was more of a whale waiting trip than a whale watching trip, and if you've ever wondered what that looks like, here it is:
Yes, it really was that exciting.
I thought maybe dolphins and harbor seals were the only marine mammals we'd see, and I could tell the ship's crew and onboard marine biologist shared my view. We circled the area, and then circled again, when suddenly, the first mate lowered his binoculars and ran toward the captain.
And then I saw it, about 300 yards away. A giant whale spout! Then another! Not one, but TWO, blue whales!
The captain turned the boat toward the spouts, and we waited for them to surface. Ten minutes later, another spout, very close to us. The captain headed over to it, and soon, we were just a few feet from the whales.
It was pretty darn cool. We didn't see much of them, just a big gray lump with an itty bitty dorsal fin. But when you imagine the size of the whale below the surface--just below your tiny little boat!--it was quite impressive. It was amazing to stand a few feet from the world's largest animals.
We watched them dive down and resurface 10 minutes later, and it was just as thrilling. I think the captain and crew were relieved to find the whales again, and to ensure our trip was not a bust.
On our way back, we saw two more pods of dolphins, and another harbor seal swimming far out in the ocean. All in all, it was a pretty spectacular trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment