Just Luffing
So far, I’ve seen a pod of killer whales, multiple harbor seals, harbor porpoises, and columbian black-tailed dear, a river otter, and the two foxes that just trotted through my field of vision as i sit here at my laptop in my dorm room, which looks out to the waters of Friday Harbor. As an Arkansan, this is pretty exciting (we don’t often see many of those species back home). The kicker is that this is only day five of my two month stay here in the San Juans.
On the first day, we went to Lime Kiln State Park and played around with hydrophones as well as with our intial questions about killer whales. Furthermore, I was deemed seaworthy as a level 1 rower…
On day two, I discovered my preference for riding a bike into town. Me and my classmates tried out our non-existent rowing skills and made it across the harbor into Friday Harbor in a matter of half an hour. There we were greeted by Popeye the harbor seal, something of a celebrity in the marina. Our trip home went much more smoothly, and we made it back in half the time it took to get there initially. However, I’m still sold on using the bikes to get to town because you only have to worry about propelling yourself and not three other people.
On day three, our class time was interrupted by news of J pod’s arrival. Anxious to get a first glimpse at our study subjects (including accompanying whale-watching vessels) we high-tailed it to Lime Kiln and spent two hours watching and listening to the killer whales as they passed by and out of sight.
Today I got my first taste of sailing and, as noted in my biographic section, it’s sure to be my new favorite thing to do. I can say for certain that it beats rowing.
So that’s just a highlighted version of my first week here in Washington. There is way more that I could say, so I’ll be doing my best to add stuff as it comes this week…
more soon…
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