B
bluh2o
Guest
I wanted to see a whale under water.
This time of year on Kauai the surf is usually up so we just bodysurf instead of dive. Last week the wind died and so did the surf, it was actually kind of quiet because normally there is this background noise similar to the sounds of living next to a freeway but it's the combination of tradewinds and surf pounding.
So we whispered to each other in the silence after watching a few Humpbacks blowing offshore, "let's paddle the kayaks out there and see if one will swim up to us". So we did.
Paddled straight out about two miles to where we supposed was far enough to be in the whale lane. I have no idea if there actually is a whale lane but our imaginations pictured one. It was quiet out there too. When we stopped paddling we could hear them breathing a mile away. A couple had just passed on the road to the breeding grounds, so we waited. Then we got hot. It's 80 degrees or so, hot blue sky, we're in 3 mil wetsuits. Somehow the 75 degree water feels much cooler so we slid overboard and tooled around under the kayaks. Bottomless blue nothing with a chorus of whalesong. I blew a few bubble rings and got back into the boat. We sat around some more and watched our position change as the prevailing ocean current took us away.
And then, kaplooeeee. A huge breathing sound behind us. A small whale broke off from his/her caravan and came to see us. We dove in. We gazed out in the right direction into more blue water and held our breath. Finally the image appeared, fuzzy at first and then right up close, a 20 foot long whale with a larger one behind it. They swam up to about twenty feet away and hung there. No whale song then, just looking. They hung around for a few minutes, we surface and dove about three times. Then they swam away to get back into the fast lane. For a week now I recall it and the memory calms me deep inside.
Then the Whale song started up again. I'm thinking they were chatting, "Did you see those guys? That skinny one needs a new wetsuit, the holes in the rear were disgusting."
This time of year on Kauai the surf is usually up so we just bodysurf instead of dive. Last week the wind died and so did the surf, it was actually kind of quiet because normally there is this background noise similar to the sounds of living next to a freeway but it's the combination of tradewinds and surf pounding.
So we whispered to each other in the silence after watching a few Humpbacks blowing offshore, "let's paddle the kayaks out there and see if one will swim up to us". So we did.
Paddled straight out about two miles to where we supposed was far enough to be in the whale lane. I have no idea if there actually is a whale lane but our imaginations pictured one. It was quiet out there too. When we stopped paddling we could hear them breathing a mile away. A couple had just passed on the road to the breeding grounds, so we waited. Then we got hot. It's 80 degrees or so, hot blue sky, we're in 3 mil wetsuits. Somehow the 75 degree water feels much cooler so we slid overboard and tooled around under the kayaks. Bottomless blue nothing with a chorus of whalesong. I blew a few bubble rings and got back into the boat. We sat around some more and watched our position change as the prevailing ocean current took us away.
And then, kaplooeeee. A huge breathing sound behind us. A small whale broke off from his/her caravan and came to see us. We dove in. We gazed out in the right direction into more blue water and held our breath. Finally the image appeared, fuzzy at first and then right up close, a 20 foot long whale with a larger one behind it. They swam up to about twenty feet away and hung there. No whale song then, just looking. They hung around for a few minutes, we surface and dove about three times. Then they swam away to get back into the fast lane. For a week now I recall it and the memory calms me deep inside.
Then the Whale song started up again. I'm thinking they were chatting, "Did you see those guys? That skinny one needs a new wetsuit, the holes in the rear were disgusting."
