Not Normally A Whale Whisperer
By Maryanna Gabriel
The Bamfield area has a wild and rugged coastline and it was with some trepidation on my part a friend and I scurried out by kayak to experience it first hand. I am a timid kayaker when it comes to these things with a healthy respect for the sea. Better alive than dead and all that. I quickly learned the best way to handle the ocean swell was to bob like a cork and paddle as one could with the thought that the skirt covering the kayak hatch would actually work as I succumbed to the rise and fall of the swell. We espied a whale rub, a kind of cliff where the whales come up and have a scratch. I was astonished to spot a whale there. He seemed huge. Suddenly my stomach lurched and not that I am normally given to whale whispering but I just "knew". I yelled at my friend. "Back up!!!" There was no time. "Reverse rudder!" I commanded like some deranged u-boat captain my voice laced with fear. I madly paddled backwards as I faced to sea. My friend had no idea what I was up to and why. One thing was sure. The whale was coming. How did I know? It was just a sense. I saw him. He saw me. He dove. He wanted to impress. To show off. Me. It was for me. The point was where was he going to breach and were we going to be over him when he did? Adrenalin and dread simultaneously pounded through me. In an impossibly quick moment the whale did breach. Oh my Lord in heaven.
The Bamfield area has a wild and rugged coastline and it was with some trepidation on my part a friend and I scurried out by kayak to experience it first hand. I am a timid kayaker when it comes to these things with a healthy respect for the sea. Better alive than dead and all that. I quickly learned the best way to handle the ocean swell was to bob like a cork and paddle as one could with the thought that the skirt covering the kayak hatch would actually work as I succumbed to the rise and fall of the swell. We espied a whale rub, a kind of cliff where the whales come up and have a scratch. I was astonished to spot a whale there. He seemed huge. Suddenly my stomach lurched and not that I am normally given to whale whispering but I just "knew". I yelled at my friend. "Back up!!!" There was no time. "Reverse rudder!" I commanded like some deranged u-boat captain my voice laced with fear. I madly paddled backwards as I faced to sea. My friend had no idea what I was up to and why. One thing was sure. The whale was coming. How did I know? It was just a sense. I saw him. He saw me. He dove. He wanted to impress. To show off. Me. It was for me. The point was where was he going to breach and were we going to be over him when he did? Adrenalin and dread simultaneously pounded through me. In an impossibly quick moment the whale did breach. Oh my Lord in heaven. 