Whale shopping list

Well, at long last I'm back for a day paddle.  There hasn't been anything wrong; just the no paddling bug seems to have inflicted most of us.

I found out late there was a paddle today in Witless Bay with the hope of catching sight of some whales.  I got on the water first as the rest of the gang of 11 got ready.

Eventually we all got on the water and got underway.  Everyone except Shane and I headed out into open water in the middle of the bay.  Shane and I ...

... decided a bit of rock hopping was more stimulating.

As we made our way east along the shore we hit upon schools of caplin that were as thick as flies.  So thick in fact ...

... Shane was scooping them up bare handed.

Shane and I paddled up to Witless Point, looked to see if we could see the others (we couldn't) and decided to make a short 2 km crossing to Gull Island.  It may be named Gull Island but there were ...

... thousands of Atlantic puffins nesting on the island.  As we approached they took flight.  I had no idea why they felt threatened as we kept well clear of the shore.

In White Horse Cove we checked out this ...

... cave.  Up to that point we didn't get one sniff of a whale or whales.  We emerged from the cave to paddle along the east side of the island and as we passed Long Point Shane spotted a whale breaching in the direction of South Head, Bay Bulls.  After about 10 minutes we heard whale exhalations and ...

... we were with two humpbacks.

They were not doing much just hovering in the water not 10 meters away.  I hoped for a flukes shot and missed a flipper shot, one flipper raised as they left us heading south.  I've had better encounters but this was what we came for so Shane and I were satisfied.  Before moving on I retrieved ...

... a container of three tea buns and we each had one trying to speak about the whales with mouths stuffed.  Finished and the lone tea bun left stashed in Shane's day hatch again we paddled north towards South Head and ...

... into this cove dominated by red hematite stained sandstones.  At the bottom of the cove we took turns ...

... looking out at the world from this massive cave.

Heading west again into Witless Bay harbour we handrailed and investigated another cave in Red Cove, aptly named and sharply contrasting with verdant green vegetation.  Left center in the picture there was one more ...

... cave to check out before heading back uneventfully to the take-out.

Its been too long getting out for a paddle but at least it was a red banner re-introductory day to paddling.  Shane and I got in a bit of rock hopping, saw thousands of seabirds, a coupe of humpbacks and a few caves.  It was just the two of us as we left the other 10 to their own devices.  I think we made the right choice.  Awesome day, thanks Shane.