Be Careful What You Wish For....or you just might get swallowed by humpback whales! (part 2)

It's hard to see but thats me surrounded by whale mouths

One day my friends and I took to our kayaks and headed out to chase our humpbacks around the cove for a while. Since we had been guiding for a while at this point, we knew how to read whale signs and track which direction the pod was headed. We would watch from a safe distance of 30 feet away with out a care in the world….until the whales changed direction underwater and headed straight for us!

Suddenly a loud, low-pitched creaking, moaning noise surround me. I barely had time to yell that I think the whales might be right below me before my kayak was completely surrounded by a huge ring of bubbles! There is a three second window before the whales lunge which gave me very little time to get the heck out of dodge. As I began to paddle as I’ve never paddled before, seagulls began to grab fish that were jumping all around my kayak.

As with all near death experiences, my thoughts were pretty simple. I obviously don’t wanna die yet but if I had to choose way, this was a pretty epic way to go down.  Second, I remember barely hoping they might grab my friend Becky too since she was close by and lets get real, no one wants to die alone.

I couldn’t clear the feeding circle, the ring was too big and my shaky arms weren’t gonna get me out in time. What seemed like grey hills started to appear on either side of me and the screams of my friends were silenced by the crash of whale mouths ascending 8 feet out of the water on all sides. Their throats expand to allow the intake of a huge amount  of water and fish as they disappear which is definitely enough space to fit a Casey. After clearing the chompers all I had to do was dodge a few 6 foot long flippers and powerful tales and I was home free!! As the whales descended, my friends and I who were totally hyped up on adrenaline totally freaked out!!

I finally got my whale encounter and to make matters even better, Jake’s kayak was perfectly set up about 10 feet away and we was able to capture it all on his camera! The only thing that beats that is the fact that a few weeks later I ended up with a picure on the front page of the Ketchikan news as the girl who nearly became whale bait! !

So the moral of the story is…be very specific on what you pray for or God might have a little fun fulfilling your dreams. Looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way. J

My day of fame in the Ketchikan news!!