SATURDAY, JULY 18, 2009 CRUEL, TANTALIZING, MAGNIFICENT & SUDDENLY HEART-BREAKING NATURE

SATURDAY, JULY 18, 2009 CRUEL, TANTALIZING, MAGNIFICENT & SUDDENLY HEART-BREAKING NATURE

We at Five Star Whale Watching take so much pride in what we do, and want so much to show the almost unbearable beauty of Nature to our passengers, that we sometimes forget that we are only one piece in the puzzle of Life and not the Assembler of Life's many pieces.

At first light Saturday morning offerred both promise and a hint of foreboding. Sunny and warm, but windy. It was only a matter of waiting to see how windy and from which direction. An early report of a Humpback Whale in a location to which we could normally take passengers (South of Race Rocks)only added to the frustration as the sea conditions there quickly became too rough and unpredictable to safely take passengers. Late morning reports of Orcas far out West resulted in similar frustration.

But we had little idea how fast these Orca were swimming: By early afternoon over 70 whales from J, K & L pods had traveled over 30 miles (50 kilometers) in less than 5 hours, and swam out of the very big seas (5 feet to 8 feet, or 1.5m to 2.5m) and into more sheltered waters along the Victoria waterfront and near Oak Bay.

We had, as you can see from Ron Bates' photos, an amazing afternoon.

And then, almost like a child watching helplessly as a leaf blows out of its hand and flies away out of reach, all three pods turned to the South back into now even heavier seas. Knowing that 70 Orcas were just "over there" but as they were in sea condition no longer acceptable for passenger travel we were forced to cancel our last tours of the day.

Humbling.