Surfski Knowledge Base

debbie natelson
Thur, May 28, 12:07 PM 2020

Seems late for them, but guess they start feed between Whidbey & Mukilteo in April and then must move north for late spring?. Peter's siting reminds me of my favorite (at least personal fave) whate story. Please indulge me by letting me share it with you…

Years ago Tracy Landboe had been sharing all these posts online about how she was seeing lots of Greys each time she paddled from her folks house off of Whidbey. This was making me terribly jealous, as I had moved to Washington ages before, armed with a marine biology degree and a semester aboard a square rigged research vessel, studying Atlantic Humpback whale migration from Maine to the Caribbean & Dominican Republic…. when 40 tons of Humpback broaches right in front of you, it leaves an indelible impression…But in all my years here in the PNW and all my miles on the water, I still had never seen a whale out in the wild (yes, I'd those elusive harbor porpoises we see in the distance during races – but never a whale)… So I asked Tracy if I could sometime join her during her spring paddle. Then around that Easter, she and Traci Cole graciously invited me to join them on an outing, in hopes of seeing some grey whales. I was stoked..

But I'm prone to food poisoning and periodically get these killer migraines which sometimes result in a pukey night… and as ad luck would have it, that was exactly my fate the night before. I felt like hell in the am, but there was No way I was going to miss this paddle and my chance to see my beloved whales!……. I was still pretty dehydrated but dragged my bedraggled body there and off we went… we paddled all over, to Hat island and in between… I don't recall all the route, but unfortunately, the whales seem to have been hiding. Dejected, we were on our way back when all of a sudden… one of the Tracies yelled Whale Ho.. Not wanting to deprive them of the sighing and since the Tracies are greased lightening fast (I call them T squared),,, I told them to go on ahead of me and I'd catch up.. or catch the video, thinking for sure I'd never see the whales. Still really dehydrated, I was getting sort of shaky at this point and felt like I barely had the energy to paddle, but started slogging on over.. Then suddenly the most amazing thing happened. As I'm paddling along peeked and green, all of a sudden I heard a loud Pshhhht… then another one, then a gant smelly exhale, on Both sides of me!.. Was I dreaming or hallucinating in delirium ? , Could there really be whales surrounding me?? Yes, there they were… To my total disbelief, a little pod of whales came over to escort me over to Tracy and Traci… I swear I'm not making this up… there were two large whales on each side of my ski, almost like two barnacle-coated submarines.that had suddenly surfaced….and then a smaller whale behind. They swam along with me the whole way over to T & T, who were also excited that they had seen some whales – in the distance. . You should have seen the look on the Tracies' faces when I arrived with my Grey escorts. Youve got to be kidding.. The whales then continued to tag alongside with the 3 of us paddling our skis.. a little flotilla… It took all my restraint not to try to pet or hug them..(the whales, that is)… At that point I noticed that we each had a different colored kayak and wondered if the grey whales thought of us a a box of Lucky Charms Cereal.. replete with colored marshmallows?…Fortunately, they're more into plankton and shrimp – and their breath proved it… apparently they do not floss their baleen.. .

My sickness turned to sheer elation and I quickly got a second wind… Then as soon as the whales had appeared, they then sounded and vanished. Whales are purported to be sentient beings and from this experience I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they truly are! You can tell me there's no Santa, but I'll never believe that these whales didn't somehow know I was in distress and came to my aid. They popped up on both sides of my ski and stayed with me the whole time… Sheer aquatic magic…. I'll cherish that memory forever… Thank you Tracy and Traci….. and thank you Whatcom Paddlers reading this long saga.

Hope you someday get a thrill like this,
Debbie Natelson