This is really getting a jump on the season, but when I got an email from Puget Sound Express yesterday announcing their March whale watching trips, it got me browsing through my photos to relive a trip we took with them in 2021.
In 2021, whale watching boats were required to maintain a distance of 200 yards, and given that, I had come prepared with my longest telephoto lens, as well as a collection of others to ensure I wouldn’t miss a shot.
While cruising the Salish Sea searching for orcas, humpbacks, and grays, these sea lions kept us entertained by barking, twisting and turning on the rocks, and sending occasional waves with flips of their tails; and when the captain stopped the boat, I knew we’d be getting our monies worth.
Within what seemed like minutes, a humpback was swimming directly under our boat and within such close proximity to me that my longest lens was way tooooo long. Anxious to get some shots, I had to make a quick trip inside the cabin to change lenses, while dodging a crowd of onlookers, and navigating a rocking boat.
Back on deck, the crowd had dispersed, along with the whale, but I found my husband holding a railing, drenched from head to toe from the spray of the whale’s blowhole!
As I burst into laughter, we both relived an experience where years earlier, when I had fallen head over heels into the water at Des Moines Marina when he had taken a sharp turn with our boat…
and while I refrained from shouting, “touché” I did try to help him dry off – even while he reeked from the smell of the whale. So the moral of the story is…go, but when you go, remember your rain gear!