Category: Salish Sea weather

July 2020 #5 – Playtime with Spotlight & Calf!

We moored Blue Parrot on the dock with her nose toward shore. At low tide with a NW wind blowing us towards moored boats in shallow water it’s a bit tricky getting off. We time for a gust to blow Blue P off the dock and pull a 270° turn to head out into Evans Bay. The NW wind sweeps across low terrain on Read Island from Hoskyns Channel, Johnson Strait and Bute Inlet. White caps on the crests of short steep waves rile up the mouth of the bay. Wind and waves blow us around the point all the way into Burdwood Bay.

Baby Breaching!

Terry assesses the possibility of an anchorage for later tonight. “Looks good at low tide here. I think we’ll be OK. Let’s head out.” Blue P angles across the frothing mouth of Evans Bay to the Penn Islands. We’re getting ready to raise the sails when the water suddenly flattens and the wind dies. “Typical” Jude mutters as another attempt to sail is foiled yet again.

All thoughts of sailing evaporate as we spot 2 humpies close to the shore of the middle Penn. They’re moving slowly, making their way around the outside island closest to Cortes. “Sleeping” Terry notes wryly. He notices one of the whale watching boats emerging from Whale Passage and reports the whales. We decide to move a little closer when “What was that? Up ahead – a breach – towards Von Donnop” We hear the WHHOOMP of WHALE hitting Water.  “Let’s Go!” Jude steers Blue P over as the whale watchers speed past.

We approach slowly and cut the engine “Is that a baby?” Terry wonders “Yes! A Mom and Calf! Look! The baby is breaching – she can’t quite make it all the way out of the water” —–“Is this a good position?” Jude calls to Terry who is perched precariously on Blue P’s bow manouvering carefully around the furled jib.

“WHOAH!” Mom is tail lobbing. Half her body is up out of the water. Baby is so close it looks as if Mom is going to land on top of herm – but she doesn’t. “Looks like they’re playing” Terry shouts during a brief lull in activity. He’s performing some fancy footwork to keep the whales in focus as they circle around Blue P at about 100 meters. Their play is so exuberant and Baby’s ingenue breaches are so adorable. Then Mom BREACHES – WHHHHUUMMMPPPP!  The SIZE of HER!! There are no words equal to the AWESOMENESS of a 40 TON WHALE leaping clear out of the ocean into the air. “Sky Hopping” as our friend Martha thought it was called – A much better description of defying gravity!

So special to finally witness a Mom and Calf playing together like this. We are so juiced! We’ve waited 5 years for this moment – and to capture it on film so we can share it with you was worth every minute of boredom and discomfort.

Mom and Calf are moving north. They’re getting farther away as the wind blows Blue P south. Then “Looks like playtime is over. They seem to be resting now”.  Terry observes. “Heads up!” Jude calls. She swings Blue P around in the direction of a nearby cove where half a dozen boats are congregating. “There are a couple of whales over there. Maybe they’ve finished sleeping” We hang around with them for a while but they’re not interested in people. They dive and easily give us all the slip.

Meanwhile it’s getting pretty windy so we decide to head back towards our evening anchorage. Evans Bay has once again erupted in white caps and heavy winds. We angle across the waves, navigating around another whale who is also crossing. “Happy sailing friend”

There are 2 other sailboats already anchored in Burdwood Bay so anchoring is a bit tight. But it’s protected from the NW waves and the gusts will blow us off shore not towards the other boats, so we settle in for the night.

October 2018 – Fog

Here we are floating around in Sutil Channel. We finally got here after after months of dreaming about this place as reports streamed in of dozens of humpback whales gathering to frolic and feed. Well – we’re here after a day of motoring – but where are the whales? We did notice one humpback blow off Francisco Point when we came around Marina Island. Then Terry sighted 2 blows at the SW tip of Read Island but nobody has come close or even lingered to feed in any of their reported favourite sites. So much for Humpback Heaven!

We circle the Subtle Islands. A flotilla of stellar sea lions is hauled out on the NW side. A couple of baby seals check us out. No whales. We have permission to tie up to another private buoy in one of the bays, courtesy of one of Martha’s friends. The folks on Cortes Island love the whales and have been very generous in helping us out with places for our ship to moor.

Tonight Terry and I lie awake meditating and mentally sending invitations to the whales to come and meet us if they aren’t too busy. The fog rolls in during the morning. We are floating around Hill Island. I am working below as Terry watches a fog bank roll up the channel. “Try phoning Martha” Terry calls down to me. “Ask her whether they’ve got fog over that side of the Island.”  I phone Martha. “She says it was clear this morning but the fog came in thick. It’s supposed to clear near noon but local knowledge says maybe late afternoon or evening”  Oh Joy! The fog is steadily moving toward us so we head back to our mooring buoy to wait it out.

And that’s the saga of Sutil Channel; floating around in the sun – monitoring the fog banks – waiting  for whales – and spotting them – in the distance. Meanwhile, we have some  fun observing raucous arguments between eagle mates. We watch a loon try to swallow a big-headed sculpin. We ponder on why the shore pines in the Bay are dying like the red cedars are dying in Trevenen Bay. But no whales. After a few days we decide to head back to the other side of Cortes. 2 humpbacks appear about 1 knot ahead of Blue Parrot to lead the way.

 

August 2018 – Whales in the Smoke

It snuck in during the night. We wake to a sky cloaked in veils of smoke. A red/orange sun and rust brown air are gifts from hundreds of fires burning up the interior forests and agricultural lands of BC . All land further than 1/2 km distance fades into smoke. We have our “Navigation for Dummys” tools, ie: navigational software, depth sounder and compass. But the claustrophobic combination of hot, smokey air and minimal visibility is spooky. I feel a renewed awe and respect for the cultures that navigated the oceans without any of those tools.

Since the smoke seems thicker to the south and wind is light we decide to go north to Mitlenach Island, the seabird sanctuary and anchor overnight. As we approach Mitlenach a few hours later we pass a couple of whale watching boats watching 1 humpback feed – a good sign that other whales may be around. Another sailboat is just leaving the very shallow, rock strewn anchorage on the SE side of the island. This is definitely a CALM WEATHER anchorage at halfmoon (not too low) tides. Just as we set the anchor for a NW breeze the wind turns around to the E and we almost end up on the rocks! Terry grabs the stern line and hops in the dinghy. Amazing the force of a 3 knot wind – it takes all his strength to row that dinghy and haul the stern of Blue Parrot around towards the shore.

A herd of harbour seal heads bobbing in the water have been watching all this activity. The whole herd follows us as we lower our snorkel gear into the dinghy and row it out to the rocks. As we pick our way carefully between the sand anemones and enter the cold, murky water a dozen seals approach us but they don’t come too close. In the plankton soup they disappear at 2 meters away. They don’t seem to want to play with us so we turn our attention to other ocean flora and fauna. A silver swarm surrounds us – streaming silver sides and swishing tails. It’s a shoal of juvenile herring. No wonder the humpback whales are here! We revel in herring world a while.

Swimming with so many herring is delicious but the water is too frigid to tolerate for long in a 3ml shortie wetsuit.  As we haul out to warm up we hear 2 humpbacks breathing just outside the small anchorage.  Is it hard for them to breathe deeply in the smokey air? Hoping to catch sight of them we follow a trail up a cliff which overlooks the NE shallows. We can hear a humpback breaching out there but the smoke is so thick that we can’t see anybody. Oh well. Cormorants, gulls and fascinating flora are plentiful. The interpretive signs help us identify dried up plants that are past their flowering and fruiting stages.

After a rough night in the anchorage keeping Blue Parrot off the rocks when the NW wind backed to W and freshened we are tired sailors. But the breeze is still blowing so we raise the sails and head towards Twin Islands in the smoke.  2 humpbacks are busy feeding as we sail past. We don’t want to disturb them so we continue on towards home.