Spyhopping

After following the news and watching the videos about the killer whales trapped by the ice in Hudson Bay I figured I’d chime in and share my own experience with “spyhopping.” A couple of years ago my husband and I took a cruise up and down the inland passage to Alaska. We went in July (my husband has a knack for planning our trips around our anniversary) and the weather there was heavenly in comparison to July in sweltering south GA. We took my Mom on this trip too because she said she had always wanted to go and see Alaska. Mom especially loved the cruise ship casino and dining at the Captain’s table. From the smoker’s deck area she saw pods of whales, blue glacial ice. We went on a couple of excursions with and without Mom. Most of the time we wheeled her in her chair but when we took a ride out in a small boat to do some killer whale watching off Victoria, Vancouver we had to park the wheelchair and climb aboard. Rather miffed Mom halted on the boat’s stern determined to sit on the cushions covering the box filled with life vests rather than moving inside with everyone else. I sat with her reluctantly anticipating the smell of diesel and soon the lines were let go and we were off. The engines were loud, too loud for conversation and that seemed pretty good to me because I was sure I’d have gotten an earful of complaints. We got some sea spray in our faces but we managed. Mom in her babushka was better prepared for the wind and weather than I. The boat slowed and then idled and we waited. Suddenly without any warning the orca pod lookout “spyhopped” right beside my Mom and I saw her eyes had gone wide as she turned toward me after looking the whale in the eye. After he sank back down into the water all was still above the surface and it was truly a rare moment for my Mom, she was speechless. Just as I thought Mom had given the lookout whale one of her “looks that could kill,” and he’d warned away the others, the rest or the orca pod came up blowing and curving through the swells. The spell was broken. My Mom and I were joined by several others (including my husband) along the rails for the best view of the show. We made the trip back and finally got Mom off the boat and back on the dock. It was tricky because I don’t have very good sea legs either and Mom never uttered a word of complaint.