As all the locals know, Sacramento has been caught up in a whale frenzy for the past week or so, ever since two wayward whales, a mother and her calf, made their way from the San Francisco Bay into the Delta and finally to the Port of Sacramento. Marine experts have been called in to figure out how to lure the whales back to the Bay, and eventually the ocean. But they seemed content to just hang out in the Port. For anyone not familiar with the area, the Port is a good 80 miles northeast of the SF Bay. The news story has gone national and even international, with articles on CNN and the AP wire.
The police were discouraging people from visiting the levies to whale-watch this weekend, citing “danger.” Of what, I wasn’t exactly sure. In any event, I had no plans to try to see the whales – I’ve been really busy with work and whale watching isn’t one of my hobbies. Regardless, everyone is pretty curious. I heard that my friend Patrick was taking his bike out to the port to see the whales so I gave him a call and had him meet me in Old Sac.
We headed to the port and sure enough, there were hoards of curious onlookers. We were very smart to bring bikes. It was a long, dusty walk to get to where the whales were. Initially, I was really bored and thought I wouldn’t last longer than 10 or 15 minutes. I just wanted to get a glimpse and get out of there. Then, the whales started moving – and quickly. A Coast Guard boat started following them and soon a whole fleet of vessels, including two tugboats, had created a kind of barrier and seemed to be herding the whales westward, back toward the Delta and in the direction of the Bay. Patrick and I, along with a portion of the crowd, followed along on the levy and on the lower trail near the river. Every few minutes, the whales would breach and the mama whale would blow water out. So cool.
We headed to the port and sure enough, there were hoards of curious onlookers. We were very smart to bring bikes. It was a long, dusty walk to get to where the whales were. Initially, I was really bored and thought I wouldn’t last longer than 10 or 15 minutes. I just wanted to get a glimpse and get out of there. Then, the whales started moving – and quickly. A Coast Guard boat started following them and soon a whole fleet of vessels, including two tugboats, had created a kind of barrier and seemed to be herding the whales westward, back toward the Delta and in the direction of the Bay. Patrick and I, along with a portion of the crowd, followed along on the levy and on the lower trail near the river. Every few minutes, the whales would breach and the mama whale would blow water out. So cool.
We ended up riding our bikes all along the levy to a point where the police had it barricaded off and wouldn’t let anyone pass. By that time the whales were still making their way in the right direction. We turned back around and encountered a couple of news vans, who were way too late to get any footage. We stopped and talked to the Fox station guys and the reporter asked if he could interview us. Why, certainly! He interviewed me first, then Patrick, who actually said “We call ourselves the Whale Riders.” I was trying not to crack up and was proud of Patrick for saying that, on camera, with a straight face! Hilarious. So now I’m calling everyone and telling them to check out the 10 p.m. news to catch a glimpse of the “Whale Riders.”
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