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Absolutely killer
Sea kayaking with orcas is up
close and personal
By Rich Landers The
Spokesman-Review Posted September 23, 2008
While some people are
content to simply watch killer whales, sea kayakers have a yen to experience
them.
The payoff for investing
a few days and a little muscle power can be huge, as another eclectic group of
adventurers learned this summer in the fabled orca waterways off northeastern
Vancouver Island.
From the cozy cocoon of a kayak cockpit, the paddlers
felt the forceful channel currents that govern the movements of salmon and the
orcas that prey on them.
Carrying gear beyond the high tide line let them feel
the sea-polished stones that lure an orca to rub its 6-ton body against the
beach much as a cat soothes itself against the family room couch.
Camping along orca waters provided 24-hours-a-day to
see, hear and understand orcas and the rest of their marine environment.
Paddling slowly along beds of bull kelp, kayakers
looked into the clear waters at sea cucumbers, urchins and, when the sea stars
fell into perfect alignment, a few of them looked into the eye of a
20-some-foot killer whale cruising a few yards under their 18-foot kayaks.
The extraordinary thing about this six-day sea-kayaking
expedition is that it was comprised of ordinary people.
A librarian, a marketing specialist, a physical
education instructor, a retired fireman, an ultra-sound technologist and a
Disneyland maintenance specialist none of whom had more than modest
fair-weather paddling experience were in a group taking bold strokes beyond
their comfort zone.
Bobbing like a cork in a kayak, half under and half
above the surface of the sea, Californian Janet Zuhse pointed to cruise ship in
the distance steaming down the Inside Passage from Alaska.
“That was my other option for this vacation,”
she said with a sigh. “And I chose a kayak?”
“I’d do just about anything for a chance to
get close to an orca,” said Michelle Laferriere of Florida as she warmed
up and sipped wine by a driftwood fire after a rainy day of paddling.
Three guides from Coeur d’Alene-based
Sea Kayak Adventures provided
the boats, gear, experience and instruction. With this measure of security, the
group ventured through
Johnstone
Strait, a 2-mile wide, 50-mile-long glacier-carved channel.
The company enables paddling novices to defer the
skills of reading complicated tide and current charts and monitoring weather
radio.
When a storm leaves the strait awash in whitecaps, the
guides know which islands provide calm waters.
This was far more than a paddle trip from one point to
another.
This trip had no mother ship, so everyone had to pack a
portion of the group food and equipment along with personal gear into the roomy
and stable tandem kayaks.
The group learned kayaking skills, and how to leave no
trace of their visit.
Paddling for about four hours a day provided a balance
for exploration by kayak and by foot.
Killer whales were tops on everybody’s learn-about
list. And we were disappointed. They both teased us from far away by blowing
plumes of mist and by getting up close.
“Keep watching and listening,” guide Serina
Bain reminded the trippers each day as they paddled, and each evening at camp.
 Paddling through this marine paradise was a
mesmerizing adventure even without whales. Dall’s porpoises, seals and sea
lions were constant companions. Oyster catchers and marbled murrelets winged
past.
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