Fresh Meat

Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Helloooo. This forum needs some fresh meat. Lots of PNWesters out there. Time for you sailors to way in? Anecdotes, perceptions, observations, etc.

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This past season my oldest son and is four year old boy came up from Texas for a two week cruise. One part was to find Orcas, so the west side of San Juan Island at Lime Kiln was called for.

Under sail, beating to a very light wind southbound, we spotted a herd coming up from behind. We were going slow enough that the pod came right through, around and under our boat. We saw at least one calf.

While we were standing still in the water, for the first time we saw a bull broach and spin completely out of the water. Another bull came up very close to our boat (almost close enough to touch him) turned and did a major tail slap spraying us with sea water. That was when the cow and calf were also close to our boat. A protection maneuver, I suspect.

We counted about 35 Orcas in this pod, which went on for maybe twenty minutes, to the point it became...so what else do you have to show us? Ram or jump into our boat.

Always so much to see and experience in PNW waters.
 
Last edited:
Jan 4, 2006
6,444
Hunter 310 West Vancouver, B.C.
Fresh Meat .....................

Helloooo. This forum needs some fresh meat.
................. is that anything like rail meat ?:doh:

I remember one midnight crossing of Georgia Strait under sail, during the summer and seeing what we thought were dolphins firing past us close to the hull. The bioluminescence made them look like torpedoes. Nerve wracking until we figured what they were.

Or was it something out of Area 51 ? :eek: :confused: :D
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Fresh Meet

Perhaps Fresh Meet would have been a more appropriate phrase. This meeting forum was becoming quite stale.

Must have been quite a night sight for you. Sometimes at night the water appears to have fluorescent light fixtures. Many years ago the USS Kitty Hawk was steaming through waters near the Philippine Islands and the wake behind the ship gave the appearance and glow of downtown Victoria all lit up at night.