As the Mystic Sea sat quiet in the water, a pod of killer whales swam right towards us. They swam by on both sides of the boat and one crossed right under the boat surfacing right near where I was perched as I sketched. Since I wasn’t crowded up against the railing on the opposite side of the boat, I was the only one who got to see him that close. I felt his spray.
Terry was getting annoyed that I was spending more time sketching the tourists than watching the whales. Sketching the tourists as they ran from one railing to the other was definitely more entertaining than watching the blow spouts and dorsal fins. One person would point out to sea and then everyone would rush to that railing tipping the boat slightly. Digital cameras and binoculars would come out and thousands of shots must have been fired off catching every nuance of the whales brief surfacing.
After this sighting the captain maneuvered the boat several more times to follow the pod, giving everyone on board more views of the whales. At one point the whales churned up the water feeding on a school of fish. One slapped the water’s surface with his tail.
I spoke with one fellow passenger that once lived in Orlando but moved to Seattle 3 years ago to work for Microsoft. He said he never regretted the move. He also said his son is studying to be an artist. Are every one’s children studying to be artists? Kids wake up, art isn’t easy.