We are officially on our winter migration south… by way of north. We had Linda’s family Christmas gathering in Des Moines, IA and decided to simply start our trek to Texas directly from there. We had a great time with family, but I keep forgetting what a pain winterized RVing is. Mr. Freeze decided to give us a final reminder of what we were going to miss as the temps dove back down into the teens while there (link here). We looked like the kid from A Christmas Story all layered up in half our packed Texas wardrobe ha! Finally made it below freezeline today, completely de-winterized and life is good beyond this stupid boot I’m lugging around. While we continue defrosting our toes, Brad is going to take the controls and bring you something completely new to Intrigued. I am sure you are going to enjoy it to the very “fin”.
Take it away Brad…
It’s early morning during the second half of our Alaska photo assignment. The first week was a land tour of the vast wilderness. The second week was on a giant cruise ship heading south (I can get seasick if not chewing Dramamine like Smarties). By this time in our journey south Jan and I are used to running to the cabin door to listen to the Captain’s general and wildlife announcements. On this particular ship, we weren’t able to hear through the cabin door very well. We heard the usual mellifluous ascending tones bing-bing-bing-bing (please use your musical imagination here), but an a rather unusual time. Ship’s time was just past 8am and the Captain didn’t usually make announcements until later in the morning. Jan ran to the door to try to catch the message.
“ . . . has been spotted . . . “
We both looked at each other wide eyed.
“ . . . off the starboard . . . “
Jan and I grabbed both cameras and headed for the door.
“ . . . about 100 yards ahead of the ship . . . ”
We are now running down the hall, trying to strap on the 9-pound cameras to keep them from bouncing too much. The elevators were backed up, we again looked at each other and ran down three flights of stairs.
“ . . . it is swimming about 50 yards to starboard . . . “
Jan and I end up on the 7th deck and quickly figured out which way was starboard.
As we stepped outside . . . nothing.
During a presentation the night before in the main theatre aboard ship, The Ship Naturalist Robert Raincock (find him here or here) aboard the ship said to listen for the Pfffffft. This is what the noise sounds like when Orca, or whales in general, expel warm moist air from their lungs as they break the surface of the water. Remember kids, whales are mammals, not fish. Not having a whale to watch, we listened.
Then we heard it . . . “Pfffffft! Both of our cameras ran at the maximum frames per second they could muster.
Whoa, that ain’t no Dolphin, hit the jump to reveal the source of that sound!
Continue reading Pfffffft…by Brad Marks
Life Intrigued 