Pacific NW

Expeditions

By 5:10 AM I had seen whales, bears, eagles, and salmon again. As I hauled anchor in the early morning light I watched a massive grizzly strut the beach, pawing at the boulders in search for crab. Out in the straits many humpback whales continued to breach completely out of the water. Viewing such a colossal animal–even from as close as we were–is like watching a slow motion re-play. Sort of like watching waves crash on a beach from an airplane. When the whales hit the water again they made gigantic splashes accompanied by big foaming piles of seething white water. “Storm white” is what my family uses to describe the remarkable color that white objects take on when viewed at sea on an overcast day. This morning the whales leapt as if in slow motion and created billowing storm-white splashes all around. The whole scene was quite surreal. In the afternoon we enjoyed sunshine and had an uneventful yet beautiful passage into the Gulf of Esquibel. The Gulf turned out to be another major whale feeding ground. I was surprised when the giant arched back surfaced directly under our bow. The whale threw its flukes to the side and narrowly missed hitting the boat. Whenever I see a whale this close I am too preoccupied by the unbelievability of it all to think about a collision. But I suppose, on a rare event, one of these giant leviathans could surface under the boat. At 50 feet long they are almost twice as long as “Silent Partner” and weigh who knows how many times as much. We wove our way into the Maurelle Islands archipelago in the Gulf of Esquibel, past kelp-covered reefs, forested inlets, storm-beaten cliffs, and the ever-present humpback whales. Our anchorage is teeming with deer. Everywhere they are grazing on tall green beachgrasses and don’t seem to mind us being here at all.