Inside Passage
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2008
1
17
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Bellingham,
Washington,
United States
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Vacation Day 16
The Inside Passage- Canadian Waters
Well, this morning started off with me waking up early for some odd reason and we all know come time to go home I won't be able to get up at all. Sigh, but any way, so we got up and did our breakfast thing with an already quiet family and then we all dispersed to our areas to do what we like. Me, I sat and watched for marine wildlife, in particular the elusive, wolves of the sea, the Orca. We started off quietly with little happening and a very tired Dawn, so I decided to go back to bed for a bit. Well, half an hour into it mom came and woke me up to tell me there was "Something out there". So I get up to go identify the animal in question to identify it as a humpback, 15 minutes go by and the sightings have stopped so I return for a nap again. This time I slept for probably 1 hour and mom comes in again and tells me "they are everywhere and going nuts". Well, to start off with some background, whales vocalize, called echolocation, and in boats with steel or aluminum hulls the sound echoes, so yes we were hearing the humpbacks "singing" through the hull of the ship
Bella Bella Lighthouse
. So I get up and head back out to take some pictures, and well the pictures I took today were not nearly as impressive as some I have taken, none the less I took some to make her happy. So as the morning goes on, we decide the sightings have stopped and we are now entering Queen Charlotte Sound which means we are on the open Pacific Ocean for 2 hours. As soon as we started eating we are rolling back and forth and low and behold, a blow. So I leave my food go out and the humpback is literally next to the ship. Well obviously I took some pictures and just by a fraction got a picture of a breech. This breech was not completely clear of the water but the head and neck came up and the whale threw itself backwards to make a splash. That I got on film. Surprise, I love my new Nikon D40. Best Christmas present the entire family and myself ever got me. Anyway, we survive the open ocean and the afternoon goes on with eager anticipation of Johnstone Strait about 2 hours from the end of the open ocean. We arrive to Critical Point, aka Cracroft point, and nothing. Despite me hooking up to the internet on the ship and checking orca-live and it saying they are on the west side of Hansen Island, nothing. So we continue on down the strait, like we had a choice here, not like it was a tour. We get to Robson Bight Ecological Preserve and deep in the heart of the Bight 4 Orca's, not even really close enough to get a good picture or anything, but my heart is still a little disappointed that they did not come closer for me to try out my new camera on them
Humpback back near ferry
. Anyway, counts correct and all, I can only allow myself to believe that these 4 orca are my 4 that I adopted and have been supporting since 2002. So we continue on down the Strait and we go to supper in the main dining room and while we are eating the winds shift and the white caps start whipping around and everything next thing is an over head page for anybody who has a tent on the lower portion of the aft of the ship to please go and check on it as it seems they are about to blow over. Not like that hasn't happened before, but anyhow that was the entertainment for the dinner, between watching tent owners made it an interesting dinner.
So anyway, I am lying on the top bunk in my cabin, typing out my journal of the events of the day and recalling things that happened. Our wildlife sightings and counts for the day: Orca 4, Humpback- probably in the 10's to 20's but hey, who's counting.
Last night was a much needed break as was today, it was a day and evening of pure nothing. Sitting on the back deck of the Columbia doing a bunch of nothing and watching the wildlife, if ever there as gratitude it was yesterday, just to be happy to on Columbia finally, it feels like home. Having room to sit in the back and watch and not trip over people etc. Everything here on the MV Columbia is just bigger and nicer than any other ship I can think of in the fleet of the Alaska Marine Highway.
Tomorrow, we are going to arrive in Bellingham at 8am and we will be unloading off the ship and starting the last leg of the trip towards home. We will be shooting for Montana tomorrow night and will probably be stopping at the Smoke Jumpers Museum for mom.
