A Very Special Evening

May 27th and 28th (Wednesday and Thursday)

Wednesday was another productive day for us.  During our long hours of work and long shifts our housework tends to slip.  We took advantage of the day to do a full clean and tidy.  Jason worked on the back area, which needed a full reorganization, and I worked on cleaning up the front including wiping down the walls.  We also made a batch of bread and buns and also a batch of wraps. 

On Thursday the wind had been steadily decreasing so at around 18:00 we decided to head out salmon fishing.  We had not yet had dinner, but we figured that we would only be a couple of hours and hopefully we would come home with some fresh salmon to have with our ten prawns for supper.  We had been out earlier in the day to pull up and re-bait our prawn traps, and we had gotten ten large prawns.  

Out at the end of Cousins Inlet, at the area of Barba Point where it turns into Dean Channel, we started trolling.  Within the first twenty minutes Jason got a good-sized bite.  As he was fighting the fish I started to reel in my line so as to be ready to help land it, and then suddenly I felt like I had a bite.  As I got mine, Jason wondered if he had lost his, then Jason felt his again, still on, but at the same time I felt like I had lost mine.  We were fighting the same fish.  The fish must have wrapped Jason’s line around mine and we were alternating feeling the fight.  Unfortunately, because of this we could not maintain a constant and even pull and the fish got away.  It was very disappointing, but we kept fishing.  We tried going back over the same area where we had gotten the bite because it was around the same area that we had caught our fish last time, but we got nothing.  

As we trolled our way further along the shoreline we were only catching small Rockfish from time to time.  In the distance we saw a whale blow, then much closer we saw dolphins.  As we looked out over Dean Channel we noticed dolphin activity scattered across the whole channel.  They appeared to be feeding in separate smaller groups, but there were a lot of them.  

Everywhere we looked we were seeing fins coming up and down and the occasional one was jumping.  We reeled in our lines and floated, watching them.  As we drifted we heard the loud exhale of a whale and looked towards the rocks.  A whale had surfaced several hundred feet away and very close to the rocks.  The drop-off along the shore is so steep that even though the whale was very close to shore we watched as he showed his whole back and then a full display of his tail as he dove.  

We continued watching the dolphins, and as we floated some of them came over to check us out.  

First we saw their rapidly moving forms speeding along underneath us and then they started to porpoise around us.  One here, one there, two in front in perfect unison.  

It was so neat so see and yet so incredibly difficult to get pictures of.  They moved so fast and were never back in the same spot twice.  Whales are relatively easy to photograph because they announce their presence with their loud blow and then slowly take their time at the surface.  These dolphins on the other hand were up and back under before we could barely turn our head to look.  

After the dolphins had checked us out they carried on and we went back to fishing.  Within a few minutes all sign of the many dolphins that had just been spread all over the channel was gone, and it was still and quiet once again.  We made our way back along the shore trolling and catching nothing.  

At around 21:00 we were back at the entrance to Cousins Inlet and we packed up our gear and started to head home.  Up ahead we spotted an area of splashing water, it looked, from our perspective, like it was quite close to shore, maybe splashing current or crashing waves?  As we got closer we could see that it was the dolphins and that now they were in a tight group, and we guessed that there were 50 or more of them.  

We headed on a parallel course to them watching what they were doing while keeping our distance.  They appeared to be feeding, but in a very different way than they had been doing out in Dean Channel.  They were moving as one, swimming, turning, porpoising, and sprinting.  At times there was almost no splashing and then suddenly the water would boil and the dolphins would rush ahead, then back to quiet.  

We slowed down and stopped to watch their activities as they went this way and that up the inlet.  They were ahead of us and then suddenly they turned around and started heading straight back towards us; one bunched-up wall of dolphins traveling towards us, it was very neat. 

We had a beautiful view of them porpoising out of the water.  Suddenly we were surrounded; they traveled right around us, and some circled back to check us out again.

As they carried on back out Cousins Inlet we started up again and carried on into Cousins Inlet, but before we knew it the dolphins had changed course again and were literally escorting us up the Inlet.  

We were fully surrounded by them, ahead of us, under us, beside us, behind us.  We could feel the turbulence from them swimming underneath us and we were being splashed by their playful jumps.  

I was up at the bow, and getting to watch them just in front and underneath us was incredible.  At one point there was one dolphin that remained for quite some time swimming back and forth underneath us slightly on its side looking right up at me.  I held out my hand over the water, and one dolphin came right up and porpoised just in front of our planing waterline and it touched my hand with its fin.

Looking around Kiki there were dolphins everywhere, some were playing in our wake, others were zooming up underneath us and porpoising in front of and beside us, and still many, many more were spread out further around us and porpoising along. 

It was one of those experiences that plasters a smile on your face.  

Eventually the dolphins dropped off behind us and went back to feeding.  We said, “Good-bye”, and carried on home through the darkening dusk to get our own dinner.  As we rounded the last corner of Cousins Inlet and looked down towards our boat and Baldy Mountain we saw one cloud that remained crested in a pink glow from the passing sunset and we planed our way home grinning from ear to ear.  

It was 21:45 by the time we were home, and Jason whipped us up the quickest seafood deluxe dinner possible.  We had 10 fresh fried prawns, crab fried rice and halibut wraps with a homemade creamy, sweet chilly sauce.  It was a delicious feast and a perfect end to a very special evening!