Epic...

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: epic - telling a story about a hero or about exciting events or adventures.

There are words and phrases that get used so often that they lose their impact... awesome, amazing, spectacular, breath-taking.   I have written about some pretty impressive whale days this season.  I have said, on more than one occasion,  that, "It can't get any better than this."

Yep, wrong again.

Today is one of the busiest tourism days in the San Juan Islands.  All our boats were full; we could have filled twice as many boats.  Yesterday was a truly fine day of whale watching... I didn't have much for whale reports early in the day today.  When I got to work, I had to do some crew training before heading out on our 1:30 trip.  Still not much for reports as I brought another new naturalist up to speed.  She is an experienced boat hand, so the training went well.

Heading out of the harbor, I got my first really good news: whales close enough that some viewing was a certainty.  Then another report of more heading the same way... we are going to have another gathering of J and K Pods!  And the timing is such that we can be right there.

On our way out of the harbor, another boat reported seeing a Minke whale just a bit south of Friday Harbor... so, I guess we'll see a Minke on our way to see the Orcas gather.  Minkes are solitary and elusive, but we got to see this one surface a half dozen times in a couple minutes.  Nice.  I put the coals to it, planning to meet up with whales that were moving quickly south on the west side of San Juan Island.  We were moving north as they were moving south - we met up sooner than I had even hoped!

Great viewing!  This was J-Pod, on their way to see their cousins in K-Pod.  You could feel the anticipation.  I shut the engine down and we drifted along with them as they slowed their pace.  You might think I would be able to photograph whales easily, since the boat isn't making way... no, I am watching the movement to keep us at legal distances... nudging the boat out when necessary.

After a half hour of some really nice viewing, I heard one of the guests ask the question we hear everyday on the boat: "Do they ever jump out of the water like in the brochures?"

"That is called 'breaching'," the naturalist explained, "and it is not something we see every day."  Almost as if on cue, we saw our first breach.  Then another.  They picked up speed, heading south.  Blackberry, who seems to enjoy getting up close and personal with this boat, made an appearance.  He is a big male, with a tall, impressive dorsal fin.  He certainly made an impression with our guests.

In the distance, I could see K-Pod moving towards us... we are going to have another greeting ceremony!  Within minutes, there were whales every direction... and breaches happening all around us!  I stopped counting at 25!

LOTS of whales, so all the boats were getting great views.  We picked a good spot that allowed us great viewing without having to move much.  The guests were squealing with delight... OK, that might have been the crew, too!  You couldn't turn your head fast enough to see all the action.  I pulled my little point and shoot out during a quiet time...

No, I didn't even have my camera out during the "breach-fest"... but I have the images in my mind.

I checked with the guests to see if anyone needed to get back on schedule... nope, we are going to stay a while and take this all in.

"Epic" is a good word to describe the day - this was truly an exciting event!