Month: July 2019

July 2019 #2 Whales in Whale Passage

When you make a dream come true and it’s everything you wished for it’s time for celebration and giving thanks to everyone and everything that made it possible. To be in this beautiful place on this little sailboat with its “cute” little old engine with whales visible in every direction – Jude and Terry are in humpback heaven! Sutil Channel is the primo place to be for Humpback Whales.

We have been anchoring or mooring Blue Parrot on Read Island where we’ve enjoyed meeting the locals – characters all. Living off-grid with only water access and no stores makes building your own home and bringing in supplies a challenge. Driving the kids across the Island to school on logging roads in Winter snow is reserved for the truly committed year round residents.

We haul our inflatable dinghy up on the government dock to repair a leak in the port pontoon. Two coats of Marine goop should do it. A 60-something character named John who’s been everywhere on the west coast from Alaska to Antarctica regales us with tales of tattered sails torn in the fresh winds of Johnstone Strait and mammal eating Transient orcas diving under porpoise pods and emerging with tender babies to gulp down for lunch. They aren’t called “killer whales” for no reason!

The winds really rip across Read Island into Evans Bay. These are the outflow winds sucked out of the deep waters and towering peaks in Bute Channel. We are fooled by the brisk breeze in the Bay but it weakens to a paltry puff out in Sutil Channel.  We turn north into Whale Passage where a few boats are fishing – always a good sign when looking for whales. “There they are!” Terry points to 3 humpbacks feeding along the shore of a Penn island. They are shallow diving. “Look! The middle one is fin slapping. Maybe herm is trying to shock the fish”  We are motoring through the passage in their general direction  “Oh, a breach!” The lead whale has breached, maybe to check out the scene visually. Maybe to let us know the 3 whales are there. Herm breaches again as the 3 swim around the point of the island. Is herm showing us their trajectory since we are behind them – we are 300m back. They round the point traveling faster away from us.

Time for a swim. It’s HOT in the relentless summer sun. Blue Parrot is open to the weather. We don’t have a bimini for shade or a dodger for rain or any other kind of protection. Jude jumps off the bubble boat for a refreshing dip – with clothes still on – a strategy that ensures constant cooling as the clothes dry on her skin. She is enjoying the very cold water as recreational boats pass with people sitting in the shade of biminis. Commercial whale watching zodiacs zip along at 25 knots filled with folks in survival suits. Jude splashes around for a good 10 minutes wondering whether the whales will get interested in a human splashing around in the water. But they don’t. sigh……

July 2019 #1 Orca Voices

“DRRING”, “DRRING” text messages are piling in on the cell phone as we motor out of Malaspina Inlet and approach Sarah Point. “Terry! Orcas off Sarah Point heading North – 2 minutes ago!”

“Woah!” Terry shouts “Do you see anybody?” We both reach for our binoculars and scan the water around the Point for dorsal fins. Eagle-eye Terry spots them “There they are! Near those 2 kayaks – 3, 4, no – 6. There’s 2 large males, I think they’re headed this way!” Jude pulls the throttle into neutral and drops the revs, ducks into the cabin for her recorder, hydrophone and headphones. Terry struggles with his new GH5 camcorder, selecting video controls on the fly.

“Here they come!” Jude is at the helm positioning the boat for best video angle “They’re right beside the boat! Oh Shit!……” A big male, right at the bow – surfacing and moving fast. Two adult females and a juvenile shoot past on our starboard side. Jude kills the engine and drops the hydrophone over Blue Parrot’s stern …… Nothing…. Fiddles with the knobs, “Why aren’t I hearing anything?” “Did you push in the headphone wires?” Terry calls. “Right!”  Jude connects the headphone wires and the roar of boat motors floods her ears. No orca sounds though. “They must be in stealth mode. They’re probably hunting”

 

Are they the same pod that barreled into Trevenen Bay a week ago? Jude was meditating on a boulder  when the unmistakable PCHOOO of those powerful blows reverberated around the inlet. A minute later they were approaching. Scimitar fins of 2 adult females and 2 juveniles slicing the silk smooth surface. What were they after? Forming a tight circle 75m from her rock they began repeatedly diving one after the other. Obviously onto somebody – a seal? What else could they be hunting in that shallow 10m deep water? No blood on the surface – no chunks of torn flesh in their teeth.  It’s a mystery with darkening dusk obscuring any visual clues of their hunt. And then they’re gone.

 

Back to the present “Wow! That was exciting! Whales on our first hour out on the ship. Must be a good omen.” We float around for a while hoping they’ll return. We watch for fins to see whether they head  into Malaspina Inlet. But now mounting waves and grey clouds billowing out from East Vancouver Island indicate that rain is definitely blowing our way. Better head into Cortes Bay to ride out the storm.

 

Dawn delivers a bright clear summer day  with no wind. We motor towards Mitlenach Island, ears tuned to the radio “4 humpbacks on the spoil grounds – south of Wilby Shoals – mid channel” It’s one of the commercial whale watching boats. Jude points the bow to NW when another report erupts from the radio “Orcas traveling – heading towards Baker Passage”  That’s SE – the opposite heading. Are these our orcas from yesterday?

 

A quick decision – a 180 degree turn and there they are. Two big bulls with towering dorsal fins. They could be the same orca we saw yesterday. They are transients – the mammal eaters who dine on seals, sea lions and dolphins. Observers of orca hunts recount with awe the fearsome symmetry of their coordinated attack; cornering a 1 ton Stellar sea lion, terrorizing him into paralysis before the kill, tossing a harbour seal into the air, playing with her like a basketball. They haven’t been named “killer whales” for no reason.

 

Jude angles the boat for Terry’s best video shot. But converging waves from several boats’ wake are ricocheting wildly off the shores of 3 islands. Blue P becomes a crazed cradle-gone-rogue.  Even the new camera’s internal stabilization program can’t handle it.

 

Time to listen to what’s happening UNDER the water. Jude lowers the hydrophone. Plaintive meowing calls greet her ears – the signature calls of G clan, Northern Resident Killer Whales! This is SO EXCITING! It’s a whole conference of calls. She listens keenly trying to differentiate individual calls but motor noise from speeding boats devours the sound space with intense high-pitched whines.

The overpowering noise becomse painful.  Jude tears off the headphones and shakes out her ears. How does all that noise from screaming outboard engines affect the orcas who have such sensitive hearing? They hear a range of audio frequencies that humans can’t even imagine. Do whales and dolphins become deaf from our noise polution? One of the large males hangs back from the rest of the group. It sounds like he is calling to them and they are answering – contact calls in a world of murky water and intrusive motor noise.

So many boats are chasing the orcas that we decide to minimize the disturbance. We swing around  to the NW just as a dark whale back surfaces only a couple of knots away. That’s half an hour at our super cruising speed of 4.85 knots. Blue P is not a boat that can chase whales but we actively drift in their general direction.

Of course Blue P’s WWII Atomic 4 engine “Lazarus” chooses that moment to quit with no warning. A plastic bag in his water intake? He’s not overheating but he won’t start again – “Oh Oh, could be a speck of dirt in the carburetor valve”. Jude grabs a trusty tool – the butt end of a large screw driver. Bang, bang on the carburetor. “Lazarus” resurects himself and turns over as if nothing has occurred. With a rueful sigh and an exchange of meaningful glances we continue.  If we stop to address everything on Blue P that needs attention we’ll never have time to hang out with the whales.

Onward to Read Island…..