AdvancedElements.com

[PJohanson]

Yesterday I saw a gray whale, while I was out in my inflatable kayak.
OMG!
This was a surprise. There's been a gray whale hanging around the shoreling here for a couple of weeks. I just happened to go paddling at exactly the right time and place.
The location was my usual paddling spot, where I've been at every level of tide and most kinds of weather. Because I knew these rocks so well, I was able to find a snug place to wait for the whale to come by. And it did come by, and it was MUCH closer than I would ever have gone to it out in open water. It was calm and going about its own business, eating something as it went back and forth around a rocky islet.
If I'd been out in my hardshell kayak, I'd have been no closer than a hundred yards or metres away or more. That's the law for how close a boat is supposed to approach a whale.
In my case, while the whale was over a hundred metres away on one side of the rocky islet, I went to shore on the other side and surrounded my short, tough little kayak on all sides and underneath with rocks. No way a gray whale was going to want to be in this piece of space! Then I waited, and the whale came back around the island, slowly and leisurely.
The whale made at least two more passes, so it wasn't alarmed by my yellow figure there on the rocky shore. I was able to retreat quickly and quietly while the whale was on the far side of the islet, so that worked out as well.
You can read about my adventure here at http://kayakyak.blogspot.com/2010/07/whale.html
I could never have done this if I'd been in any other boat. I would never have tried this without being so familiar with how it handles. And I could never have done this without being so familiar with these rocks from paddling here over and over again. Oh my. What a day![/url]

[JCOOLEY]

Wow, can't believe it. Another Whale sighting in an AE kayak. That is great.

Jeremy