Oh yeah! What a cool and fun day.

First we dove again this morning. I went to 80 feet this time and we had a blast. So fun to look up through 80 feet of clear blue water and see Ann on the surface towing the dive flag waving at us. We decided that she was our guardian angel. And she took her job seriously, watching out for all of us. We have some good pictures too. I’m hooked on diving. Lisa loaned me her PADI textbook and I read all the parts that had stuff I didn’t know. Having done some “resort diving”, I’ve had some training and shallow dives, but 80 feet was really fun. We got to look into some crevices and see some crab like things that you don’t see at the surface. Also, we had the sea snakes come join us. They are actually a type of eel, but they look just like a snake. They are very inquisitive too and it’s kind of hard to NOT have them swimming around you. Like sharks, you kind of get used to them.

So that was the morning. We took a break for lunch and some miscellaneous projects and then at 1500 the whale sightseeing boat picked us up (we met at Orcinius and the boat picked us up from there saving us the trip into the wharf and having to haul the dinghies out of the water) and off we went. I think we went about 5 miles down around the point and there we found a whale. He was very shy-the boat skipper said that it looked like a recently weaned adolescent and that sometimes they are curious and sometimes cautious. Ours was cautious. We followed him for a while-he would dive and not come up for 15 minutes, so there was a lot of “looking around” time, but finally the skipper had a feeling for where he’d be and we slid over the side-as Ann put it; “…in the middle of the Pacific Ocean”. Wow, the water was blue! While we were tooling around, I dove down into the blue depths. You could easily get lost in the blue because there’s nothing else. Anyway, it took some strong swimming to catch up with mister whale, but we finally got close enough to see him in his environment. Majestic! He didn’t stick around so it was just a short experience, but what an experience. The most amazing part was the whale song. You would hear it as you were swimming-so you knew you were on the right track. You could even “range” on it by turning your head. There was definitely a directional component to it. But the most amazing part was as we got close the sound went from something you “heard” to something you “felt”. The song became a part of you-it enveloped your entire body and seemed to resonate inside you. Amazing and spiritual. Not something any of us will soon forget.

So, after spending many hours in and under water today, I think we’re going to sleep very, very well tonight and maybe we’ll have whale dreams! I hope so. They are beautiful and majestic animals.