We’re in the April 2021 issue of Passagemaker:
We actually purchased this picture from Noelle. Here’s the full version:
This is actually the second time we’ve been in Passagemaker. Oh, the paparazzi! They just can’t get enough of us. Here’s that moment from the other side (taken from my phone).
I always feel like I need to explain how we wound up so close to the Orcas. I explain it a bit in the video post, but to summarize again: we put the boat in neutral several hundred yards south of the pod. There was a south wind blowing us north. The Orcas were swimming back and forth (east and west) and slowing making their way south. Once or twice, we tried to reposition to the west, toward the shore, so they would pass behind us, but the pod wasn’t moving predictably and covered a lot of ground (they would disappear for minutes at a time and then resurface someplace new). It wasn’t actually easy predicting where they were going so we could be out of the way as they approached. So, we eventually just sat there and they swam right up to and past our boat. We would have had to run away from them to keep distance – and at a certain point they were close enough that we felt it was safer to keep the boat in neutral and let them decide.
Most people have been super nice about this, but there are always haters (someone accused us of feeding them). The one thing you can always rely on is people passing judgement on situations they weren’t present at to confirm their biases about human nature… and then posting it on Facebook….