{"id":510,"date":"2006-07-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=510"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:58:37","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:58:37","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew274","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew274\/","title":{"rendered":"Icy Straits – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
More humpbacks – this time they put on an acrobatic display. Also some tense moments when orcas come on the scene.<\/div>\n

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It just so happened that the next morning coincided with another ebb tide, so before we headed into Glacier Bay we went back to Point Adolphus. This time there was a whale watching boat already on station.<\/p>\n

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We thought about following their lead, but decided to stay on our own. <\/p>\n

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We were rewarded again with lots of inquisitive visitors. Perhaps it is Wind Horse’s<\/em> sleek shape? Or, maybe it is our "flippers" almost amidships – a trait we share with the humpbacks. It could be we share similar coloring below the waterline – both of us favoring black.<\/p>\n

Whatever it is, at the end of the feeding cycle we were treated to an amazing spectacle of what we interpreted as play.<\/p>\n

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There was a lot of spy hopping, where the whales extend their heads out of the water for a good look around.<\/p>\n

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Even better were a series of breaches (note the stabilizer fins above – a much more efficient design than what we have).<\/p>\n

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These huge mammals launch themselves almost totally out of the water in these breaches, and then come down with a resounding smack that echoes off the surrounding mountains.<\/p>\n

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Sort of reminds of of doing cannonball dives when we were younger. <\/p>\n

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To better match our characteristics to our new friends, we’re thinking of painting one side of our stabilizers white.<\/p>\n

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But we don’t think we can match this belly flop.<\/p>\n

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Some of the whales were slapping the water with their tails. This guy was using the side of his body.<\/p>\n

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We were excited to see this family of orcas come cruising through, and then somewhat apprehensive about their intentions. If you look carefully you can see a baby dorsal fin at the left of the photo, alongside mom. Their course took them around the perimeter of the humpbacks. Whether they were just showing the colors, or looking for a meal, we don’t know. However, we saw them again mid-channel, so perhaps they were feeding on salmon. We later met a marine biologist who told us that the orcas do go after baby humpbacks, but usually do this in larger packs.<\/p>\n

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Here is another horizontal stabilizer assembly.<\/p>\n

After this awe-inspiring display, a pair of adults parked off our stern and began to nap. Every few minutes they would gently exhale, and then take a breath.<\/p>\n

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After half an hour a lone seal came around and began to play with the whales, or perhaps it was just trying to annoy them. They eventually appeared to tire of the seal’s antics and sounded, treating us to one more set of flukes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More humpbacks – this time they put on an acrobatic display. Also some tense moments when orcas come on the …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}