Beam Reach

Birthdays, Whales, and Sustainability

Our break on land was very useful because it gave everyone a chance to use the wireless internet, and get some things done. The first day back on the water was mostly spent traveling to Port Townsend because reports of whales came in from Puget Sound. Unfortunately, the whales decided to pass directly by where we were staying during the night, and we could even hear their blows despite not being able see them. Also there is a hydrophone installed at at the dock there, and it did an excellent job picking up calls from the whales as they pasted by in the dark. Some of the students took advantage of being on land by taking walks after dinner, and a few even took a cold shower in the morning (I wasn’t brave enough for the shower). During a walk Cat, Hana, and I found the old remains of what once was Fort Warden. This was very interesting stop, however, the next day was spent fighting a extremely strong current to get back to San Juan Island and the whales. It was a good day for everyone to work on their projects because of the long trip. Going North payed off and we found the whales, and in the process we made it close to Cherry Point and Bellingham, which is my hometown, so that was fun so see it from the water. One day when we were with the whales near Victoria we witnessed close to 20 spy hops and whales breaching left and right; this resulted in some excellent pictures and videos.

The group also celebrated our second and third birthdays on the boat with some delicious dinners, and whale shaped cake, and a cheesecake. The birthdays helped pass the days that we didn’t see many whales. For 10/10/10 we decided to write an editorial as a group to advocate for people to make a small sustainable change in their day to day lives. 10/10/10 is an call to action for keeping the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to 350 ppm.

Everyone had strong opinions about this topic, and the group had some interesting discussions while we wrote the piece. On that Sunday Scott had everyone form the number for 350 with our bodies, and he was hoisted to the top of the mast with his camera for some really cool pictures. Now we are getting ready for a conference starting on Wednesday in Victoria Canada. Customs have cleared us in Rouche Harbor and we are planning on leaving bright and early tomorrow.