The day after fourth of July, all was sunny. There were reports of orcas at Point Roberts, just south of the northern border that we share with Canada. It would take us an hour and a half to get there, so you can imagine our relief when we received word of a pod closer- at East Point on Saturna Island to be exact.
The trip sped by as I talked to customers and attended to people's needs. Before I knew it, I looked out the port window and the east of San Juan island had already passed us by. We were headed towards Flattop and soon would start the trek past Waldron. The high hill of Saturna loomed in the distance.
We paralelled the orcas from Java Rocks to Turn Point on Stuart Island, silently transferring from Canadian to American waters. We saw a group of orcas restling in the distance, possible mating behavior. As they came closer though, it seemed that we had discovered the playground. There were several calves in the group and it seemed that the entertainment was for their benefit.
We had quite a few children on the boat today ourselves-well behaved, curious and one particularly intellectual little boy with an expansive vocabulary. He spoke with the affluence of an adult. The kid's inquisitiveness and excitement was only exceeded by the adults. A mother with her teenage daughter on board was ecstatic that she was going to get to see the orcas, partly because her daughter had collected orcas growing up. She almost cried when she made the reservation, she almost cried as we pulled out of the harbor, and I'm quite sure that tears of joys streamed down her face as we saw the group of calves for the first time. Our emotions are one thing we share with other mammals, but crying is unique to us. Many mammals tear, but we are the only ones who tear in response to emotion.