It was 7am and we were still waiting for the fog to lift to start a whale survey. By 8am we decided to just go. If we could not see very far then at least we could travel a short distance, shut off the outboard and listen for whales. This system worked well and by 930am the fog finally began to lift; to our delight behind this veil of mist was a deep blue sky. We traveled to Hartley Bay and dropped off Hermann who was off to town for a few days. From there Magdalena and I made our way through Verney pass looking for humpback whales. This journey alone was startling with rocky cliffs towering from both sides of the pass. You could see small patches of trees that had enough tenacity to actually seed and grow from these ancient rock formations. Just as we turned first bend of the pass there were 2 blows accompanied by a lot of splashing. As we approached these 2 humpbacks, one after the other lifted their tails to the sky, then slid through the surface of the water. When they resurfaced a few minutes later they both began to just float, the sun reflecting from their damp bodies. Soon we realized they were going to sleep so we decided to move on as we had great distance to travel to finish the whale survey today. As we approached the second, third and fourth group of whales we realized there was an interesting pattern occurring. Just as we were within 200 meters each group, always of 2 humpbacks, they would go to sleep. We were slightly confused, were we possibly this boring? We took as many dorsal pictures as possible without disturbing these sleeping giants. Once we arrived at Bishop Bay, and since it was obviously nap time in whale world, we decided to treat ourselves and dip into the natural hot springs in the bay. This experience would have been appreciated had it been cold outside, but instead a hot sun was beating down on us and soon we knew it was time to continue. As we left Bishop Bay we immediately came across 2 more whales, and yes, they were also sleeping. Just as we were about to depart, a deep inhalation stopped us from starting the boat, a breach then another left us both speechless and excited; now we would be able to take some fluke identification pictures. Both humpbacks were seasonal residents, one named Teeth (huge killer whales rake marks on the fluke) and the other named Fire. We left them as they rolled, side by side through the kelp, obviously enjoying the slippery feeling of the long ribbon like blades gliding over their massive bodies. As we reached Whale Channel we realized time and daylight were running out. We searched for blows hoping to stay on the Princess Royal Island side. As usual the whales had other plans for us. We scanned both shore lines and sure enough, across the channel on the Gil Island side we could see a few blows. Since we eventually would have to cross we decided we may as well do so now. As we traveled closer we realized we had way more than just a few blows. Between Shrub Point and Camp Island we counted 3 to 4 groups and at least 12 more humpback whales. We had little time and a lot of whales to try and identify. Fortunately none of these whales were sleeping and they all made our job extremely easy. We had 2 separate posturing groups of males and off in the distance a mother and calf. We were quite certain she was the center of the competition occurring between these groups of males. The picture here shows some of this extremely active encounter.

The sun had now set and somehow we managed to tear ourselves away from this dramatic scene. The ride home was a beautiful mixture of reds, pinks and orange as dusk and darkness began to invade the open sky. By the time we arrived back at the lab the rest of the crew had to meet us with flashlights so we could safely make it to shore. They surprised us with a magnificent hot dinner; it was not long after, with full tummies and a mind filled with whale encounters we dropped into bed with a mixture of exhaustion and pure joy.