j&lgray
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2008
- Messages
- 644
- Fluid Motion Model
- C-28
- Vessel Name
- Trilogy
It was a first for us.
We had listened to people (like Island Ranger) who had seen them. We had seen video taken from the news helicopter but we had never seen them up close and personal in Puget Sound. Now, seeing whales is not new for us. As a Park Ranger in San Diego I spent many days showing visitors the whales as they did their annual southbound migration after the Christmas holidays and we seen them off the coast of San Francisco. Plus, last summer, the Laurie Ann spent two hours drifting among a pod of Orca's in the San Juan Islands.
But this was something special because it was unexpected.
Two days ago, we had left Everett and were crossing Port Gardner Bay heading to Hat Island with the tug humming along at 12 knots in flat water on a clear and windless afternoon. Then right off the bow, about a 1/4 mile away, a mature Gray Whale that was about 60 feet long surfaced, cleared its blow hole and dove deep waving its flukes at us. We idled down and followed it and its younger companion for over an hour as the two fed in the 200 plus feet of water. They would surface three times in succession and then dove deep for 5 to 10 minutes, coming up and covering about a 1/2 mile.
Spring time in Puget Sound! Time to back on the water.
We had listened to people (like Island Ranger) who had seen them. We had seen video taken from the news helicopter but we had never seen them up close and personal in Puget Sound. Now, seeing whales is not new for us. As a Park Ranger in San Diego I spent many days showing visitors the whales as they did their annual southbound migration after the Christmas holidays and we seen them off the coast of San Francisco. Plus, last summer, the Laurie Ann spent two hours drifting among a pod of Orca's in the San Juan Islands.
But this was something special because it was unexpected.
Two days ago, we had left Everett and were crossing Port Gardner Bay heading to Hat Island with the tug humming along at 12 knots in flat water on a clear and windless afternoon. Then right off the bow, about a 1/4 mile away, a mature Gray Whale that was about 60 feet long surfaced, cleared its blow hole and dove deep waving its flukes at us. We idled down and followed it and its younger companion for over an hour as the two fed in the 200 plus feet of water. They would surface three times in succession and then dove deep for 5 to 10 minutes, coming up and covering about a 1/2 mile.
Spring time in Puget Sound! Time to back on the water.