Monday July 5, 2010

Monday morning began right with a gorgeous hike to a lighthouse on Stuart Island in the San Juan Islands. At the lighthouse we saw seals playing while enjoying a new weeks lesson. After an intriguing discussion we hiked back to the boats. With prayers for sightings of Orca Whales, we set off. Each boats crew continued to learn how to sail and put that knowledge into practice until late afternoon when four yellow boats appeared on the horizon.
"whale watching boats!" cried Steve Holser
With those three words everyone on Steve's boat hurried onto the bow (that's the front as we all learned) to watch whales. Steve used walkie-talkies to let the other boat know. Each boat zoomed through the water until we were as close as we were allowed. We saw the Orca Whales jump, and push their six-foot-long fins out of the water. It was a beautiful sight that not too many enjoy seeing.
Our eyes still filled with awe, we anchored in Shallow Harbor. But as you might have picked up by now, everything is not how it seems on this trip. We were told to dress in warm clothes, contrasting the warm weather and to bring our camera. We were then dumped on an Island, given a quater sheet of paper with things to take pictures of, 3 instructions, and told to get going by team. We all rushed through the Island looking for North Echo Bay Camping Ground while avoiding other teams and taking pictures of all sorts of things (banana slugs included). We all made in to the camping ground so quickly the adults in their boat didn't even beat us. For dinner we made tin dinners and had s'mores for dessert. With full bellies we circled around the campfire and listened to Susie Jostyn's lecture on adventure. Thoughts of the inspiring lecture filled our heads as we ventured off into our separate areas for our solos and drifted to sleep.
-Jess and Jordan