Friday Harbor... whale watching

Woke up at 9am today to get ready to head out on our whale watching trip. Some people were coming in on the ferry for the excursion, which was delayed due to heavy fog. So the tour was going to start at 11:15am. We got down there and checked in and got our anti-exposure suits. They were padded and definitely warm on this gorgeous day. Made me debate why we were wearing them. We grabbed hats and gloves too as they suggested. The other people on our tour was a family of 4 with 2 girls, maybe 7 and 10 years old. And another family whose daughter was maybe 16. So we had 10 people of a boat that seats 15, plus the captain and a naturalist. We headed out and had quite the ride, going maybe 30+ MPH and over some big waves. The captain was chatting with other boats about where the whales were, and if there were any sightings. While we were waiting, we stopped to see an island full of seals, then a few eagles on this island. Speiden Island, where the eagles were, is apparently owned by the owner of Oakley. We continued on, and apparently crossed the invisible dotted line that separates the US and Canada ;-) to find the Orcas. We soon caught up with a few other whale watching boats who were all watching this family of Orcas. Apparently they are a transient group, as opposed to the J, K, and L pods who live here. There were at least one or two adults and some youths that just kept hanging out. They would swim around the top, show their dorsal fins, blow their spout, dive under, come back up, dive back in and do it all over again. We moved along watching them for over an hour and they just kept doing this. They put on quite a show for us. Even the B.C. ferries coming by didn’t phase them. I took a ton of pictures, and luckily after getting them downloaded and zoomed in, I got some nice shots. Including one of the tail of one as it dove down in front of a sailboat. Lucky shot. We actually ended up very close to the town of Ganges on Salt Spring Island, in Canada. I actually visited there 5 years ago when I came up to the boat and we went around the Gulf Islands. After we’d been out over an hour, we had to head back. We actually went quite the distance to get to the whales, so had to high tail it back. And FYI, the distance we traveled one way today in about 30-45min (at 30ish MPH) would take about 4-5 hours (at 6 knots) on my parents boat. And let’s just say that I understand now why we wore the suits that we did. It was freezing out there. Once we got back we checked out the stuff for sale in the whale watch shop and I got a sweatshirt. We went back to the boat and made some grilled cheese sandwiches for a late lunch before going back into town. There was a magnet and ring I wanted to buy. But first we went to The Whale Museum and wandered around. It was small but nice. I ended up getting a fleece vest there. I was looking at another vest in town, but liked this one better. Then went and got my costume jewelry ring that I just had to have, my magnet, and stopped by the grocery for a couple of sodas and a new magazine. On the way back to the boat we stopped at the fresh seafood place on the dock and bought a pound of tiger prawns for dinner. My Mom made a ginger, teriyaki, honey, coconut marinade for the prawns (she stumbled upon a recipe in one of her cookbooks) over some jasmine rice. YUM YUM!! Then just the normal routine of some shows on DVD (Star Trek… for my Mom the Trekie) and me downloading my pics (YAY for some good shots of the whales). Just a chill night, after much walking the last few days. After tonight, I have 3 more nights on my trip. The last will be in Anacortes, which I don’t count. And we were going to hit this town La Conner, which my Mom compares to a very small Carmel. But since we’ve been in towns for the last 4ish days, I suggested we anchor out the next 2 nights in more rural areas where maybe we can hike and kayak. So that is the plan for now.