From e-mail to Egg:
We went on a whale watch on a Zodiac, a kind of inflatable boat with a motor. You're not much above the water! My east coast whale watches have been for humpbacks and happened on ferry-type vessels, and the one off Orcas Island in 1999 was a generous-size motor boat. Not this! Four benches for four passengers each, and a pulpit for the captain. Inside the pulpit was the world's smallest washroom, as he put it; I would call it a head, since it was on a boat, and there was no washing happening. Also we got to wear these astronaut suits. I had worn a heavy long skirt for a windy day but had a short hiking skirt in my dry bag, which I quickly nipped on--another benefit to skirts instead of trousers, easily changed--and put on the suit, which protects you from wind (high), spray (cold), and also floats you if you fall off.
We saw orcas! The first pod we came across was part of A pod (we also saw I Pod, and RDC wondered if Apple paid a royalty for the name). They were asleep! The resident orcas eat salmon and vocalize a lot when they're awake, whereas the transients, who have a larger range, tend not to talk so much amongst themselves because their prey are mammals so can hear.
These were residents and the captain said "Let's call them up on the Orcaphone" and dropped a microphone into the water. First we just saw a bunch of dorsal fins--a dozen or so--rhythmically rising and sinking--and they were swimming in such tight formation and so silently that the captain said they were sleeping! Swimming and sleeping! They can turn off a part of their brain so only the keep-with-others and swim functions are on, and one whale will stay awake to be a sentry. Two pairs were cow and calf.
They woke up a bit when they cruised through a herd of salmon. Humans were fishing for the salmon as well, from boats, and the arrival of orcas, sleeping or not, scattered the salmon. Poor fisherfolk. The whales woke up and talked a little and maybe had a snack and fell asleep again. Kind of like that Wiggle. We left them to sleep and went farther north in Johnstone Strait through whirlpools you would not believe. Whirlpools in the currents between the islands, fifty feet across some of them with vortexes five or more feet deep. It was wild.
We found another clan of A pod and what the boat does is stop behind them, watch for a bit, and zoom out and around them and pause again in hopes the whales will pass nearby when they've caught up. This other clan was more awake and we heard them echo-locating the boat and discussing amongst themselves what they should have for lunch ("Let's have salmon again!" "Okay!") and where they should go for said lunch. Later we saw a part of I Pod and even I, who had never heard them before, could hear how different their dialects were. The resident pods have the same language though different dialects, but the transients have a different, lesser-used language as well as a different diet and habitats. In general their dorsal fins are pointier triangles rather than the residents' more curved ones--/\ versus /)--but despite those differences, they have not yet evolved different teeth.
I saw a few black-and-white dogs including a Landseer Newfie, who of course with the being so big and being black and white is the perfect dog for me, and a smooth-coated border collie, and though I don't think Orca is a very good name, I might make an exception if the black and white were better distributed. Better for a cat. Also a 12-week-old regular black Newfie named Posey. Such big paws! And a 4-month-old black lab named Beau.