Beam Reach

End of the rainbow

 

Saturday, October 20, 2007

We woke up to a rainbow ending behind the harbor master’s office and a light dusting of snow on the Olympic mountains. We left Port Angeles after a breakfast of Jason’s homemade pancakes. Transient killer whales were spotted briefly on our way to try to catch up with members of L pod that had been reported off San Juan Island. As we sailed, we worked on data analysis, final papers, and power point presentations. Heather and Elise heated up our remaining left-over’s and made egg salad (again!), which we managed to polish off for lunch. We found Superpod around 3:30 in the afternoon near Turn Point on Stuart Island. Our last day on the Gato Verde was spent watching the whales breach, tailslap, spyhop, and roll with pink elfshoes on display. As evening approached, we pulled up the hydrophone array for the last time and headed east to come down the San Juan Channel to spend the night at Jones Island. Liz and Kenna prepared vegetable medley pasta surprise and we looked forward to hearing about Shannon’s research before watching Ingrid Visser’s documentary, Killers I Have Known.