Did it really matter that one little thirteen year old was sulky because the world didn’t genuflect every time she walked by? The sea didn’t seem to think so, and increasingly, as the waves rolled on, neither did I…
~ Polgara The Sorceress
Once in a while someone will ask me why I will always jump at the chance to go on a whale watching tour, or anything that involves getting in a small craft and being on the water. After all, I work on a ship…isn’t that the same thing as a barista going to a coffee shop on her break?
Not exactly.
When you’re on the ship herself, it doesn’t feel like being on a boat, not really – or at least not most of the time. My office is on the fifth public deck of the ship, and my cabin is on the sixth, which puts me pretty high above the waterline. There’s no spray up here, and the ship is big and obviously stable, so unless it’s really rough, there’s no sense of motion either. We’re a little bit…suspended.
Put me in a catamaran, or a zodiac? Something that runs close to the water, where I can actually take in being on the ocean? That’s really really good for me.
So I was pretty happy to be granted a slot to go on one of the whale watching tours in Icy Strait Point.
Frankly, I would have been just as happy if I hadn’t even seen any whales, but see them we did.
Humpback whales are solitary creatures, and I think they may be shy, as they usually seem to be far off from the boat and going in a different direction. Except for this one…incredible creature…who swam up to within – I swear- maybe 6 feet of the ship. You could see the silhouette under the water, you could see every wrinkle on its spine…it was the most incredible thing I have seen in a long long time. The kind of thing that pulls tears out of you that you aren’t even remotely expecting.
Moments like that? They make everything else seem small…so very very small.