The only time we’ve seen orcas IRL was when we were kids; me at Sea World, and the SO at Marineland. The weather up here is beautiful, so why not go on a whale-watching cruise? We set off on Victoria Star 2 at 0930, and motored around the Jan Juan Islands.
First we came upon some harbour seals sunning themselves on some rocks. A little bit later, we saw some Steller sea lions doing the same. We passed through a large area of water thick with yellow buoys indicating a lot of people wanted prawns for dinner. (Probably some halibut fishing going on as well.) I caught sight of a harbour porpoise and tried to point it out to the SO. Seconds later, the crewman came on the PA to let us know there were porpoises out there. These porpoises are not very friendly. They don’t interact with humans, and tend to avoid us. Hunting was good though, so we saw many of them as they caught their meals.
Around 1130 or noon, a buffet was set up and we had lunch of baked wild-caught king salmon, BBQ chicken, cold bow tie pasta, cole slaw with cranberries, buttermilk biscuits made on the boat, grapes, and gigantic brownies. At 1300 we pulled into Friday Harbor. The SO and I went to the whale museum. The thought that came to my mind was ‘Bless their hearts.’ Not much of a museum, really. But the pickled seal foetuses were cute; and the SO got her traditional magnet, plus a couple of matted orca photos. We walked around the marina then, seeing if we could find Popeye, the harbour’s mooching seal mascot. Didn’t see her.
At 1530 we took off again. Features of various islands were pointed out; ‘Steve Ballmer owns that one and that one’, ‘Nuns used to run the state ferry dock on that one’, ‘That one has no electricity or water; so every one has a generator or solar panels, and they pay about 25¢/gallon for water from the desalination plant’, and so on. We passed an island that had an 800-foot bluff or cliff, and were told there was a trail leading up to it. The trail is closed for a short period every year to accommodate bald eagles nesting there. We spotted a bald eagle soaring around. (Incidentally, we have an eagle’s nest near our house.) This led to a tale of t a small knob of an island offshore from this island. A guy bought it, intending to build a house on it. He got as far as building a dock and stairs, but when he had the place surveyed he was told that he couldn’t build a house there because it was too close to the eagles. I wonder if he or his family ever goes there to camp?
We returned to Fairhaven (Bellingham) at 1730. Robbie Robertson of The Platters lives in Bellingham, and was having a free gig at The Cocoanut Grove to celebrate his 80th birthday. We went, but the place was packed. We saw him chatting with a couple of people outside, though. Instead, we went to a Greek restaurant that the SO had never been to, and which I have not been to for a dozen years. She had garlic prawns, and I had lamb souvlaki. She liked the bit of lamb I gave her, but she still doesn’t like the aftertaste. We started with dolmades, which she had never had and which she liked. I hadn’t had dolmades with meat in them since I was in L.A. (I just got the ones from Trader Joe’s, which are meatless.) She impressed the bartender by ordering an ouzo with orange juice and grenadine. He’s from Greece, and said he drinks that at home. The waitress had never heard of it. It doesn’t have a name, so we decided to call it an ‘ouzo sunrise’.
Have you noticed what’s missing from this narrative? That’s right; we didn’t see any orcas. We didn’t see any Minke whales. We didn’t see any grey whales. (We could watch grey whales all day near where she lived in Coos Bay.) So still, after spending $200 (for both of us) on a cruise specifically intended for seeing orcas, have never seen an orca in the wild. Everyone got a voucher for half off another cruise. We’re disappointed we didn’t catch sight of our quarry; but we had a nice eight-hour excursion with a very nice lunch. And we can try again at a later date for $100 for the both of us.
We had fun but no whales only porpoises.