Whale Watching

Erik Schlecter called Friday night asking if we would like to go whale watching with him.  He works on a boat that holds about 40 people and they go out for two hour whale watching trips.  If he has empty seats on a trip he can give away a comp ticket.  So Saturday at 11:30 we were met by Erik for a wonderful adventure.

It was fantastic.  We met him at Auke Harbor.  It is a small harbor loaded with all types of sea going craft.  The rain was dripping at a pretty constant rate.  The camera we have is just to slow on the trigger and so we missed the good shots of the humpbacks.  There were three that stayed relatively close to the boat.  There were only about 10 of us on this trip and so we could run from our seats to the bow or turn and run to the stern to see them break the surface.  Each would surface 3-5 times expelling their breath noisily into the air.  The spray from their nostrils would shoot 25-30 feet into the air.  Often we heard them before we would see them.  On the last time they would surface they would hump up their back like a cat and plunge downward.  That would leave their tailfin the last the to disappear.  It was a wonderful experience.  I have got to get a better camera so next time I can get a shot of the fluke.