“I think I see him” Terry calls me – “He’s over there – sails up – coming along Hernando”  Terry and I are floating in Blue Parrot, our 27ft C&C schooner, between Vancouver Island and Savary Island. A dozen humpback whales have been emerging from long dives, probably fishing. I love hearing them breathe and watching their high, heart-shaped blows.

“I don’t see his boat – is he in his trimaran?”  We are looking for our friend Jamie. He’s in a plywood trimaran which he has resurrected out of 2 trimarans he salvaged. One he actually pulled from the sea where it had sunk in shallow water. This monumental job has taken him at least 7 years in between other construction and land caretaking jobs. Jamie rebuilt the trimaran, rigged her and is now sailing towards us on his maiden voyage for a Salish Sea rendezvous.

“You need your binoculars” Terry advises  “he’s not moving very fast in this light breeze”

“Is that him? – he’s way out. It’s going to take him a couple of hours to get here. did you tell him there are whales?”

“I told him. He’s excited to see them” A couple of hours later he arrives! ” “Ahoy Jamie!”  And that’s the long slow story of whale watching from a sailboat.

“Let’s raft up and drift together” Jamie suggests. “Sounds good” says Terry. We pull fenders out of the lazerettes and tie them to the toe rail. Then we tie the 2 boats together. There are a few commercial whale watching boats nearby along with some recreational cruisers and runabouts. But there’s not a lot of thrilling surface action to entertain them, just whales fishing on long dives. So they all depart as dinnertime approaches and the sun arcs towards the Vancouver Island mountains.

“Come see what I did with the boat” We clamber over the attached ama of Jamie’s trimaran onto the main hull to admire his expert carpentry work. “I caught too many prawns this morning.” He tells us.  “Do you want prawns for dinner?” Does he need to ask?

We enjoy dinner together listening to the whales still breathing around us.

Now that the noisy boats are gone I drop my hydrophone again ” Listen to this Jamie” I hand him my headphones. Jamie’s eyes light up “Wow! What’s that sound?” he exclaims. “Sounds like bubble feeding to me but deeper under the water.” I tell him “They’re not lunging at the surface” We all take turns listening and I connect my bluetooth speaker. “One is singing now!” I cry out.

“I’m getting in the water” Jamie announces. He squeezes into his wetsuit, jumps in and tries to imitate a whale singing. “Do I sound like a whale” he asks “No” I laugh. “I can feel the vibrations in my body.”  Jamie is floating blissfully around our rafted boats.”This is incredible! Come on in the water.”

“I want to record them singing.” I tell him. “I can’t record if I’m in the water.”   In the recording below a male humpback is practising his vocal percussion.

 

After about 25 minutes Jamie pulls himself up onto his ship. “I don’t want to leave yet. I just got here and the whales are coming closer” Jamie sighs “Do you want to stay the night?”   Terry and I look at each other. I check the weather prophesy which indicates a 10-15 knot NW wind overnight. But right now it’s calm and there aren’t any signs of a bigger wind coming up the Strait. “OK” we agree.

A group of 3 whales dives under our boats. Another 3 surface close by. “KC! It’s KC!” Terry calls out. The split dorsal fin of the first whale we ever met at close range 7 years ago breaks the surface of the water. “It’s KC” I echo happily. “Was it KC who was singing? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could recognize their voices?”

“One of the other whales looks familiar. I recognize that white mark on herm’s left fluke.” Later, after pouring over the ID catalogs for an hour I find her. “It’s Crescent! We’ve seen them together before. This is so exciting!” I started a “Who Hangs Out With Whom” chart to map humpback relationships that we’ve observed. KC and Crescent are old companions.

It seems that the whales are moving closer. They’re circling around and under our 2 rafted boats. Perhaps they are feeling comfortable with us being here after so many hours of floating with them.  “Are you going up the mast?” Jamie is climbing the steps he has secured on the trimaran mast. “This will be a perfect angle” he says as he lines up an approaching whale. He does and it is. In Jamie’s video you can see his trimaran rafted with Blue Parrot. And here comes the whale who has the most beautiful nostrils!

Video by Jamie McPhail

At dusk Jamie plays the passionate music of Lassa on his stereo. He secures a multi-coloured strobe light on his deck to alert other boats to our presence. Blue Parrot’s 2 solar lights kick in as the darkness deepens.

We’re at half moon but at 23:00 it has just set. “This is amazing – A whale is singing right under us!” I’m ecstatic “I can take the first watch and wake Terry up at 2:00. Go to sleep Jamie.”

After my experiences with heavy dew in Baja I pull on my long underwear, heavy pants and  Pollen sweater and cover  them up with all my old rain gear.

I settle in with headphones on for a long moist watch listening to singing whales.