“Yes I am pirate, a few hundred years too late!
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder,
I’m an under forty victim of fate arriving too late!”
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder,
I’m an under forty victim of fate arriving too late!”
~~ Jimmy Buffet
The afternoon sun was nearing 2:15 when the two younger German couple came strolling up. The boat captain was still pleasantly smiling even though the trip was scheduled to leave at two. Willy and Anna muttered phrases in German and the four began what sounded like an international chicken squabble but off we were. There were eight of us not counting the boat captain loading up into a twenty foot wooden v hull. Soon the vessel was skipping across the two mile wide lagoon and the mist off the front of the boat was a cool oasis from the afternoon heat. Within minutes from our departure, bottle nosed dolphins were escorting our boat. Then as the captain lowered the gears on the 75 horse Yamaha, the atmosphere was filled with the sound of what could best be described as someone blowing air through a short garden hose. We had arrived! Majestic Grey whale mothers and babies were breaking water like submarines submerging from the deep. The sight was breathtaking. Not one or two but dozens and dozens in every direction and in varying distances from the boat as well. Before we knew it the captain pulled the boat within twenty feet of a sleeping mother and baby. It took the baby which averaged fifteen feet or so no time at all in realizing there were visitors near them. It swam as if from a sea world show flipping a single fin at us and rolling along. The ruckus woke the mammoth forty foot mother and off the two went. We cruised slowly through the giant pack watching the occasional brown pelicans diving for food through the maze of whale humps for what seemed an eternity. The sounds of digital cameras filled the air when the captain found another sleeping pair. I realized he was utilizing a more stealthy approach as he idled the engine. The boat drifted in a near perfect perpendicular glide to within a few feet of the dormant mother. I stuck my waterproof camera a foot and a half below the surface and snapped an excellent shot of the mother’s eye when all of a sudden the camera clicks woke the pair. Within seconds the second sea world show started this time the mom was also involved with the play time. The two whales danced around the boat for a good half hour before the captain asked if we had had enough. Yet even before the captain finished his sentenced Karen was reaching for the fin of the mother grey whale as they were about to swim off. The whole scene looked like a child in a petting zoo reaching for a goat who wants to stay out of reach. The afternoon sun was cooking now as the winds slowly picked up. The ride back seemed more wet as the boat cut through two foot waves. That night the six of us upon finishing our dinners met at Willy and Anna’s camper to compare pictures and videos. We laughed into the wee hours of the night then departed to our camps.
The afternoon sun was nearing 2:15 when the two younger German couple came strolling up. The boat captain was still pleasantly smiling even though the trip was scheduled to leave at two. Willy and Anna muttered phrases in German and the four began what sounded like an international chicken squabble but off we were. There were eight of us not counting the boat captain loading up into a twenty foot wooden v hull. Soon the vessel was skipping across the two mile wide lagoon and the mist off the front of the boat was a cool oasis from the afternoon heat. Within minutes from our departure, bottle nosed dolphins were escorting our boat. Then as the captain lowered the gears on the 75 horse Yamaha, the atmosphere was filled with the sound of what could best be described as someone blowing air through a short garden hose. We had arrived! Majestic Grey whale mothers and babies were breaking water like submarines submerging from the deep. The sight was breathtaking. Not one or two but dozens and dozens in every direction and in varying distances from the boat as well. Before we knew it the captain pulled the boat within twenty feet of a sleeping mother and baby. It took the baby which averaged fifteen feet or so no time at all in realizing there were visitors near them. It swam as if from a sea world show flipping a single fin at us and rolling along. The ruckus woke the mammoth forty foot mother and off the two went. We cruised slowly through the giant pack watching the occasional brown pelicans diving for food through the maze of whale humps for what seemed an eternity. The sounds of digital cameras filled the air when the captain found another sleeping pair. I realized he was utilizing a more stealthy approach as he idled the engine. The boat drifted in a near perfect perpendicular glide to within a few feet of the dormant mother. I stuck my waterproof camera a foot and a half below the surface and snapped an excellent shot of the mother’s eye when all of a sudden the camera clicks woke the pair. Within seconds the second sea world show started this time the mom was also involved with the play time. The two whales danced around the boat for a good half hour before the captain asked if we had had enough. Yet even before the captain finished his sentenced Karen was reaching for the fin of the mother grey whale as they were about to swim off. The whole scene looked like a child in a petting zoo reaching for a goat who wants to stay out of reach. The afternoon sun was cooking now as the winds slowly picked up. The ride back seemed more wet as the boat cut through two foot waves. That night the six of us upon finishing our dinners met at Willy and Anna’s camper to compare pictures and videos. We laughed into the wee hours of the night then departed to our camps.
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