Once again the alarm went off early, early for a vacation day at least. Today was a whale adventure day and we were up and at them at 7am. The whale tour left Ucluelet at 9am so there was just enough time to have breakfast and drive the 30kms or so to catch the boat.
As it turned out there was no need to get up early at all. As we arrived in Jaime’s Whale office just after 8:30am the lady kindly pointed out that the whale tour didn’t depart until 10am. With Tracy still hobbling about there was nothing for us to do really other than sit in the car, yawn, play I-spy and watch a seagull attempt to eat a sea star.
After an hour ticked round we hobbled back to the office and then down the plank to the boat. With seats secured inside for Tracy, Harry and Toby and outside for me, the boat was off and we were off to find whales! A short while after leaving Ucluelet harbour and we were in amongst some rocky islands where the gray and humpback whales like to feed. It wasn’t long before the boat engines slowed and we had our first sighting. A gray whale by all accounts. It was also at this point that Harry appeared outside on the upper deck in a flood of tears. “Are you Harry’s dad?” asked the crew member who had bought him up (Tracy couldn’t move down below). “Yes” I replied. “He feels sick” they said. “Ok” I said.
Harry sat down next to me with a blanket round him and a sick bag in hand. Tears, snot and snuffling were a plenty too. We were probably about just over half an hour into a three hour tour. “I want to go back” stuttered Harry between the tears and the dramatic breaths. “You can’t” I said. The dramatic breaths increased and the crying increased as the swell did. Meanwhile the whales were probably doing leaps, twirls and dances to the side of the boat!
“Look at the horizon and you’ll start feeling better” I told Harry. Harry said “ok” and then looked at the floor. “Look at the horizon” I repeated. “Ok” he said. Then he looked down the steps to the lower floor. “Harry. Stop looking at the floor. Do you know what the horizon is?”. “Yes”. “Then look at it”. You can’t accuse me of being unsympathetic! The swell swelled and the tears increased. “Come on Harry, pull yourself together!”. I think that did the trick or it was the magic ginger chewy sweets that one of the crew gave him. I’m not sure how ginger does it, or how they found out that ginger had magic sea sickness super powers, but they did and it does. Slowly but surely Harry began to feel better. We were circling round a small island and Harry kept his eyes firmly fixed on it. The tears stopped and the talking slowly came back.
All this time the whales had been swimming round the boat, splashing their tales and putting on a show for the boats that were out there. Harry even managed to take his eyes off the island filled with stinky sea lions and sea the whales. Tracy managed to hobble her way up from below for a short while and Toby decided to stay below and have a little snooze! It turns out Toby prefers whales that jump out the water!
With one more sighting of a humpback in the bag it was time to head back into Ucluelet. We passed some eagles and sea lions on the way and saw some beautiful views as the fog lifted for a while and let the sun come through.
Back on dry land Hrry and Toby spent their holiday money on a cuddly humpback whale and walrus. Toby christened the humpback “nitternats” and Harry the walrus “stinky”. After a brief pitstop at Barry’s Drugstore for ice packs, bandages and magic healing gel, it was time to get lunch! The perfect cure for almost having sea sickness is a burger and fries, and that’s what we devoured at Black Rock, a beautiful resort/restaurant tucked away just outside Ucluelet.
And after all that it was time to go and relax at home. There’s only so much excitement we can take in one day!
As usual, there are lots more pictures here!