I Like Whales, but…

…this is getting crazy. Every day it seems to get a little more extreme, like some kind of Stand Up Paddle whale slalom. Today started sort of uneventfully, the wind didn’t look that great–strong at the Canoe Hale up by the Kehei Pier, and positively nukin’ on the North Shore, but when we drove down to Makena Landing to drop off the shuttle truck it was dead calm and whatever windline we could see was five or more miles out. Still, we decided to suck it up (Chan is going to get tired of hearing that) and go all the way. What the heck, it’s just paddling (though it never is).

We hit the water and started getting some nice bumps and rides right away. There was a surprisingly big swell angling onshore. Must have been a reflection off Sugar Beach, there isn’t enough fetch to build a swell that size right at the Hale. I angled sharply out. Rand stayed inside for some reason, and Chan took the middle ground. I think I actually made the best choice. I had good rides for at least half of the run. Up ahead the whales were going nuts. There were huge splashes everywhere.

As we neared Sorrentos I angled out further to avoid a pod that were doing breaches and tail slaps right in my path. As I angled out a particularly large whale surfaced a few hundred feet from me and started doing kind of an oddly angled tail slap that was kind of like slapping the water backhand, then forehand, then backhand–flipping his tail over at an angle. The sound was so intense I could feel it in my feet and my chest. Just past that whale a mid-sized calf did a forward flip coming completely out of the water. Ahead of me a big whale did a partial breach–shooting about half it’s body out of the water then sliding back and sideways. It was close enough for me to clearly see the lumps under it’s chin and a big scar where it’s right pectoral fin joined its body. I felt quite small. My board seemed ridiculously fragile. Like skateboarding through an elephant herd.

I made it clear of the pod without incident, had a few more close encounters, then the wind died off, the swells got big, cresting, and oily, and I saw a boat that looked like it might be in trouble. I altered course to pass close by and checked it out. Two guys and a gal, fishing. They were fine. They must have strong stomachs, the boat was pitching wildly. I felt much safer on my Stand Up Paddleboard.

I angled in a little because it looked like the wind might be a little better. I wasn’t. A few minutes after I left the boat I heard the whine of an engine behind me. But it wasn’t my new fisherman friends, it was a lifeguard on a jetski with a rescue sled. “You okay” he said. “Sure” said I. He told me they had been called by a tourist that said two people were being carried out to sea on standup boards. He understood we were doing downwinders, asked where we started from, radioed back that all was well and left me to my paddling.

Chan was working her way out, I was working in as we neared Makena Landing. We were soon in talking distance. She had seen the lifeguard and wanted to know what was up. A few minutes later I heard her yell “Hey Bill” from a little distance behind and inside me. I turned and saw a dolphin fin, a foot or two from the nose of her board. She had a friend. The Dolphin cut back and forth in front of her for some time, rolling his body sideways to get a good look, then came over to check me out. He dodged under the nose of my board, I watched him cut through the water and swim right in front of TWO WHALES!! Holy smokes they were right on top of me!! They both surfaced, the nearer one no more than five feet away, the further one perhaps ten. I could see the nearer one’s pectoral fin under my board–it had wide white markings all along it’s edge. The nearer one hosed me down comprehensively with his spout. Uck. It didn’t feel as snotty and wasn’t as bad smelling as the last time I got whale sprayed, mostly just water and a little shrimpy smell, but I still wasn’t going to lick my dry, parched lips–though I suddenly really needed to. As soon as they were a few feet past me I jumped in the water and scrubbed off. Somehow they didn’t get Chan even though she was no more than 20 feet away and she found the whole thing pretty amusing.

We made the turn into the bay, met Rand who said he hadn’t seen a thing on his inside line–considered it an uneventful trip.

If these whale encounters get any more up close and personal we’re going to have to invite some of these whales over for dinner. I wonder if Costco carries Krill?