A Day to Remember
16/07/13 05:59
Yesterday was one of those once-in-a-lifetime days for us. We have been talking about taking a whale-watching cruise since before we had children and our oldest is now 32 years old. Over the years we have collected brochures from a half a dozen charter companies who provide such tours. It all came together for us yesterday. Our whole family was aboard the Mystic Sea when she pulled out of her slip in Cap Sante Harbor at Anacortes, WA.
Being a lover of boats it was a joy just to be aboard the 100-foot vessel and listen to the diesel engines rumble as the captain made his way through the islands to the location of a pod of resident Orca whales. The company works with a spotter plane that keeps an eye on the location of the whales and yesterday the whales were to the west of San Juan Island. It took about 90 minutes for our ship to make its way to the whale watching area. Along the way we were treated to spectacular scenery on a nearly perfect day. The sky was clear and there was a light sea breeze that made standing on deck pleasant.
We also had a booth near the bow of the ship that allowed us a comfortable place to get inside and sit comfortably when we wanted to step out of the sun and wind for a few moments. Our booth was just a few short steps away from the bridge where we could observe the captain and listen to the radio chatter from the harbor control, the spotter plane and other boats in the whale-watching fleet. It sounded like we were in for a good day of whale watching from the reports of the others.
There is an art to watching the whales. The fleet is closely supervised so that none of the boats come too close to the whales or get in the way of their activities. The boats need to anticipate which direction the whales are traveling and position themselves so that the whales come to them. The orcas eat salmon and sometimes you can see the salmon jumping ahead of the whale that moves underwater. A mature orca can stay underwater for more than 20 minutes and is capable of diving all the way to the bottom of the shallow coastal waters.
And we saw whales. We were as close to the whales as those on smaller vessels and at times as our boat sat still there where whales rising on both sides of the ship. They were close enough that we could hear the spout of their air holes as they exhaled. We got a number of good pictures as we eagerly stood at the rails watching these amazing creatures.
The cruise also gave us a look at a Minkie whale, bald eagles, turkey vultures, harbor seals with their pups and more of the gorgeous scenery of the San Juan Islands. Our boat had a naturalist on board who was able to answer our questions and provide identification of individual whales.
The trip back to the harbor included an opportunity to stand on the bridge with the captain and take a brief tour of the on board navigational and communications equipment. I also got a tour of the engine room with the two giant 700-horsepower Detroit Diesel engines. There is a separate engine with a generator to power the electronics, galley and lighting systems. The engine room even had enough room for a fourth engine that was kept in standby to power a back up generator should the main generator for some reason fail. Everything was clean and ship-shape in the engine room.
The Mystic Sea is an aluminum-hulled vessel licensed as a charter boat to haul up to 74 passengers with a crew of two. There were far fewer passengers than that for our cruise and an additional two crew members staffed the galley and concessions area as well as assisting with dock lines and other seaman duties. The naturalist on board had worked her way up from crewing various vessels and will stand for her captain’s license in six weeks.
Our cruise took a leisurely seven hours to complete and our crew enjoyed the adventure. Our two-year-old grandson was remarkably resilient, taking a short nap in the midst of all of the activities. It was difficult for him to know where to look and he was expecting to see more than just dorsal fins, so we are not completely sure that he spotted any of the whales, but he did enjoy the adventure, have an on-board lunch and snack and share the joy of being with his family when we were all in a good mood and enjoying ourselves.
After the cruise, we cooked supper outdoors on the grill and enjoyed a family meal. After supper it was bath time for the young one, but grandpa had time for a brief paddle. At high water it was a very short carry from our campsite to a good launch site and I was able to paddle over to the mainland and back for my own sunset cruise. My homemade cedar strip kayak has been in the waters of the Puget Sound before, but this is the first time I’ve paddled in the islands. The harbor seals were curious about my passage and came up to within 20 feet of my little boat as I paddled. This particular boat is made of fence-grade cedar from South Dakota and has been paddled in waters as varied as the Yellowstone River in Montana, the Bay of Fundy off of New Brunswick, Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan and her home waters of Sheridan and Pactola Lakes in the Black Hills.
As I watched the sunset from my little boat I thought of a phrase that we have heard from our grandson several times since we arrived. He keeps describing each day as “best day ever.”
From the perspective of my age I know that a day of whale watching ranks pretty high. It isn’t better than the day I was married or the day I was ordained or the day I danced at my daughter’s wedding. It might fall a bit short of the day of the birth of our son or the birth of our grandson or several other memorable days. But I don’t need to rank my days. Instead I can add one great memory to another and have been allowed the luxury of all of these wonderful days.
And yesterday was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime day that was truly memorable and will be added to the growing list of “best days” for all of us.
Being a lover of boats it was a joy just to be aboard the 100-foot vessel and listen to the diesel engines rumble as the captain made his way through the islands to the location of a pod of resident Orca whales. The company works with a spotter plane that keeps an eye on the location of the whales and yesterday the whales were to the west of San Juan Island. It took about 90 minutes for our ship to make its way to the whale watching area. Along the way we were treated to spectacular scenery on a nearly perfect day. The sky was clear and there was a light sea breeze that made standing on deck pleasant.
We also had a booth near the bow of the ship that allowed us a comfortable place to get inside and sit comfortably when we wanted to step out of the sun and wind for a few moments. Our booth was just a few short steps away from the bridge where we could observe the captain and listen to the radio chatter from the harbor control, the spotter plane and other boats in the whale-watching fleet. It sounded like we were in for a good day of whale watching from the reports of the others.
There is an art to watching the whales. The fleet is closely supervised so that none of the boats come too close to the whales or get in the way of their activities. The boats need to anticipate which direction the whales are traveling and position themselves so that the whales come to them. The orcas eat salmon and sometimes you can see the salmon jumping ahead of the whale that moves underwater. A mature orca can stay underwater for more than 20 minutes and is capable of diving all the way to the bottom of the shallow coastal waters.
And we saw whales. We were as close to the whales as those on smaller vessels and at times as our boat sat still there where whales rising on both sides of the ship. They were close enough that we could hear the spout of their air holes as they exhaled. We got a number of good pictures as we eagerly stood at the rails watching these amazing creatures.
The cruise also gave us a look at a Minkie whale, bald eagles, turkey vultures, harbor seals with their pups and more of the gorgeous scenery of the San Juan Islands. Our boat had a naturalist on board who was able to answer our questions and provide identification of individual whales.
The trip back to the harbor included an opportunity to stand on the bridge with the captain and take a brief tour of the on board navigational and communications equipment. I also got a tour of the engine room with the two giant 700-horsepower Detroit Diesel engines. There is a separate engine with a generator to power the electronics, galley and lighting systems. The engine room even had enough room for a fourth engine that was kept in standby to power a back up generator should the main generator for some reason fail. Everything was clean and ship-shape in the engine room.
The Mystic Sea is an aluminum-hulled vessel licensed as a charter boat to haul up to 74 passengers with a crew of two. There were far fewer passengers than that for our cruise and an additional two crew members staffed the galley and concessions area as well as assisting with dock lines and other seaman duties. The naturalist on board had worked her way up from crewing various vessels and will stand for her captain’s license in six weeks.
Our cruise took a leisurely seven hours to complete and our crew enjoyed the adventure. Our two-year-old grandson was remarkably resilient, taking a short nap in the midst of all of the activities. It was difficult for him to know where to look and he was expecting to see more than just dorsal fins, so we are not completely sure that he spotted any of the whales, but he did enjoy the adventure, have an on-board lunch and snack and share the joy of being with his family when we were all in a good mood and enjoying ourselves.
After the cruise, we cooked supper outdoors on the grill and enjoyed a family meal. After supper it was bath time for the young one, but grandpa had time for a brief paddle. At high water it was a very short carry from our campsite to a good launch site and I was able to paddle over to the mainland and back for my own sunset cruise. My homemade cedar strip kayak has been in the waters of the Puget Sound before, but this is the first time I’ve paddled in the islands. The harbor seals were curious about my passage and came up to within 20 feet of my little boat as I paddled. This particular boat is made of fence-grade cedar from South Dakota and has been paddled in waters as varied as the Yellowstone River in Montana, the Bay of Fundy off of New Brunswick, Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan and her home waters of Sheridan and Pactola Lakes in the Black Hills.
As I watched the sunset from my little boat I thought of a phrase that we have heard from our grandson several times since we arrived. He keeps describing each day as “best day ever.”
From the perspective of my age I know that a day of whale watching ranks pretty high. It isn’t better than the day I was married or the day I was ordained or the day I danced at my daughter’s wedding. It might fall a bit short of the day of the birth of our son or the birth of our grandson or several other memorable days. But I don’t need to rank my days. Instead I can add one great memory to another and have been allowed the luxury of all of these wonderful days.
And yesterday was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime day that was truly memorable and will be added to the growing list of “best days” for all of us.