Whale Watching in Reverse

There’s a perpetual joke aboard Awesome that I have somehow been whale jinxed: whales seem to avoid me like the plague. I’ve come to accept this as one of my real-life super powers. Along with choosing the slowest line at the grocery store and causing all cross-town traffic lights to go red, I also have the peculiar power of deterring whales from making an appearance in the wild. Of course, I’d prefer flying and super-human strength as my super powers, but you gotta to work with what you got.

Miraculously this trip, I believe my jinx has finally been lifted. So much so that now I find myself wondering if whales, in fact, go human watching instead? Like whale watching in reverse…

This all went down on a fine June morning at Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island (also known as Baranof Warm Springs). We’ll likely have several posts about this magical place but let me first share my jinx-lifting experience of a life time.

All of our pleasure craft neighbors, who had been tied like us overnight to the well-kept dock at Baranof Warm Springs, cast off in the early morning, leaving us to enjoy the harbor alone. We hiked up to the lake, dabbled in the natural hot springs, and rounded out our morning with a long soak in one of the fresh, clean bath houses, directly fed by a constant flow of hot springs water. Bone-warming luxury with a view of the falls. Absolutely divine.

I imagined we had found the Alaskan version of the fountain of youth. Our daughter was beaming with delight that we all fit into the “hot-lava-water” soaking tub. We leisurely wrapped up our morning of bliss and started our preparations to head off.

I was tidying up and readying the galley for making way when I first saw her. She surfaced with a startling exhalation not more than a foot or two off the dock where the neighboring boat had been tied only a few hours earlier. Our boat exploded with excitement, we grabbed cameras, and pressed out to our rails to get a closer look.  A young humpback (or a Minke-of-unusual-shape? Help me, those without prior whale jinx…) had quietly cruised into this snug harbor with more confidence in the falls’ current than we had shown by boat just the evening before. Clearly, she was taking a familiar hot lap around the bay. She buzzed by the dock floats, dove under, and resurfaced near the base of the falls at the head of the bay.

Matthew and I kept our cameras trained on her path. Our daughter had turned into an amped-up springboard bouncing across the decks chanting, “Thar she blows! Thar she blows!”

With a slow-motion flip of her tail, the whale submerged for long minutes on a trajectory out of the bay. That was it – we figured she’d headed out as quietly as she came in and I was so thrilled to have had such a close experience.

Matt went back to prepping Awesome for our departure. We had to leave the dock before the submerged rock a few yards behind us became a hazard with the lowering tide.

PSSSSSSHHHTTT!!

Holy crap! The adrenaline burst! The whale surfaced with a loud snort-burst just off our transom.

I had mere moments to swing my camera around and snap a shot. From my point of view, you can see how close to the boat this inquisitive whale had come. Matthew snapped close-ups, to follow in a separate post. After such quality human watching (although more likely bottom scrubbing for parasite relief or feeding…we humans are so egocentric after all…just work with me here), she confidently headed back out to the mouth of the bay.

The remainder of our cruise that day and the next, between Baranof Warm Springs via Chatham Strait and Peril Inlet to Sitka, large groups of whales surrounded us on their merry way to wherever.

 

Clearly, my jinx has been lifted, if only for a weekend, and I am beyond grateful to have had the whale watching tables turned.