Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
“T
here!” Beside him near the front of the deck, Willow shot out of her seat and pointed over the starboard bow.
Tripp and everyone else on board looked over in time to see a tall column of water vapor rise above the surface of the water. A second later, a small dorsal fin appeared.
“There she blows,” Xanthe said into a mic from behind them. “Behold, the majestic Northern Pacific humpback whale.”
Finally. They’d been looking for this humpback for almost an hour, and the excitement on board at finally seeing it was palpable. The slope of the huge animal’s back appeared for a moment, then sank beneath the waves.
“Keep watching,” Xanthe added. “He or she is just under the surface and will come back up for another breath or two before sounding.”
Sure enough, another blow spouted moments later off the port bow. The small dorsal fin and slope of the back appeared again, gleaming wetly in the sunshine.
“There’s the peduncle,” Xanthe said, “the muscular part of the tail that attaches to the fluke. See how it’s curving like that? That means get your cameras ready, folks...”
The whale’s wide tail lifted completely out of the water, the underside of it almost completely white. Everyone was busy taking video and pictures.
“There’s a beautiful fluke shot!”
The huge fluke rose straight up in the air. A series of delighted oohs and ahs came from the passengers, then the whale dove down, and the fluke disappeared beneath the emerald-green water.
“You won’t see a better fluke up dive than that,” Xanthe said.
“Our friend will be down for probably another ten to fifteen minutes now, but if you got a good shot at the underside of that fluke, you can upload it on Happy Whale Dot Com to get a name and biography on the whale. Each humpback has a unique pattern on their fluke, like a fingerprint. Scientists use them to identify and track individuals.”
Seeing the whale was great. But Tripp was way more interested in Willow.
“These beautiful animals were once hunted to the brink of extinction,” Xanthe continued, “but thankfully a moratorium was placed on commercial whaling in 1985. Our local humpback population has now recovered enough that they are no longer considered at risk. Although they still face threats from entanglement and ship strikes to climate change, they have officially been removed from the endangered species list.”
A cheer went up from the passengers.
Willow turned to him, a wide grin on her face. “Wow, that was amazing. I’ve never seen one up close before. Did you get any pictures?”
“No.” He’d been too focused on her reaction. “You?”
“Yeah, I think I got some good ones.” She looked at her phone.
“Ooh, yeah, I did. I’m sending it in to that happy whale thing.
” She typed away on her phone for a few minutes, her excitement infectious.
Then she tucked it away and huddled deeper into the waterproof flotation jacket Xanthe had given each of them before leaving the dock.
“How is it so cold out here when it’s so hot on land? ”
The wind was chilly. “You can take my jacket.”
“No, you’ll freeze.”
“I won’t freeze.” He unzipped it, started to shrug out of it, then the boat pitched up sharply on the crest of a wave.
Willow squeaked in alarm and threw out her arms as she stumbled backward. Tripp grabbed her, pulling her close to steady her.
“Thanks,” she said on a soft laugh, wrapping her arms around him in a quick hug that lit up his entire body before she let go and straddled her seat in front of him again.
He draped his jacket over her shoulders and tucked it around her, earning a grateful smile.
The intense yearning wasn’t going away. It was only getting worse. Expert at repressing his emotions as he was, he didn’t know how much longer he could hold back everything he felt for her. She was so real. So down to earth, and no one had ever understood him the way she had.
“All right, folks, the captain says the wind’s about to pick up,” Xanthe announced. “We’re going to leave our humpback friend to his herring supper and head for more sheltered waters in the channels between the islands.”
Everyone settled in as the captain turned their boat and headed east toward the other islands. Aside from witnessing Willow’s excitement, this was Tripp’s favorite part, when the captain opened up the throttle and they flew across the water.
The vessel skimmed across the water while music played from the speakers. Passengers enthusiastically threw up their hands when “Danger Zone” started.
Willow turned her head to shout at him over the combined music, engine noise, and wind, holding the brim of her ballcap in place with one hand. “Want your jacket back?”
“I’m good,” he called back. Being cold for a while was worth it to make sure she was warm and comfortable.