Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Another whale breaches twice, again right off the starboard bow. “Why do they do
that?” someone asks. “We really have no idea why,” Jan says. “It's a gesture. They could
be playful, or angry. They could be scratching their backs.” She adds, “They breach more
often when the wind is at twenty knots or better,” a phenomenon that has been documen-
ted world wide. Again, no one knows why.
Back on shore, the trade fair is in full swing. There is whale jewelry, whale soap, whale
pottery, whale stained glass Christmas ornaments, whale t-shirts, whale picture frames,
whale note cards, whale ceramic tiles, stuffed whales, plastic whales, beaded whales,
whale songs on CDs, brass trivets in the shape of whales, and, my personal favorite, whale
teapots. When Sitkans do things, they do them all out. Don Sineti is back with his banjo
and Steve Roy with his squeeze box, leading the rest of us in song with “New York Gals.”
Rose Fisheries is serving up salmon caesar salad and grilling salmon steaks on a barbecue
outside. There is a table if you'd like to adopt a whale, which is what Alison Rose of
Wales (yes, without the “h” and in the U.K.) did five years before, and then flew across
another ocean to get to this one so she could attend
Whalefest!
Whalefest!
is in its fourth year, and every year more events are added to the schedule.
The first year, 1997, Cynthia Dalmadge of Bloomfield, Colorado, was the only person
who came from out of town. “There were six people at the sea chantey concert the first
year they had it,” she says. Back for her fourth year, she found the concert and the panels
SRO.
It is a credit to the way the festival has been structured that as many people are there to
learn about whales as there are to watch them in action. “I'm just realizing,” I tell Jan
Straley on board the
St. Phillip
Saturday morning, humpback whales blowing and sound-
ing on all sides, “that I've been around whales all my life, and that I know nothing about
them.”
She smiles. “Don't feel bad,” she says. “I don't, either.”
