Whale rescue mission

oh my god. i'm like still smiling. today was unreal. so... justin, christine and i were having a hung over breakfast at delfino's when ryan came running into the restaurant. apparently on a decoy-towing trip this morning, fiona (ryan's girlfriend) had gotten a picture of a shark with a tag on it. it was one of our sharks, named roxanne. so ryan comes running up to our table, starts about six different sentences, and finally tells us that we are tracking roxanne and he needs an extra person. and, by the way, there's an entangled whale off the coast, stef is going to try to free it, and might need extra people. so christine goes off with ryan, and justin and i finish lunch and head back to the house. so we're sitting around, watching episodes of the office on my computer, when stef gets the call for the whale rescue. he said we were welcome to come watch and try to help out as much as possible, but we don't have to. for a couple seconds, i considered staying in, since i was a little hung over, but then realized that i was choosing between watching tv on my computer or helping rescue a whale. so... obviously, i went.

we went out with the sea rescue team, which are basically like really hard-core lifeguards. or more like the coast guard, i guess. anyway, three boats went out, one big boat with like a cabin and stuff that most people went on, but adam and i went with 3 sea rescue guys on a smaller dinghy. we should have known what to expect when they made us wear helmets. or when all the guys on our boat were wearing wetsuits. but i was up for an adventure, so we put on life jackets and helmets, signed a paper that no one bothered to read, and jumped in the boat.

adam probably put it best: "i've spent a lot of time on boats, but this is the most... everything boat ride i've ever been on." and he was right. it was everything. the wettest, the coldest, the bumpiest, the scariest, the most fun... everything. we held on for dear life, put our feet into the straps on the bottom of the boat, and zoomed down the coast to find the whale. our boat was rescue 1-5 alpha, which just sounds kind of intense. it seriously felt like we were in a movie: the marine biologists jumping into the boat with the coast guard to go rescue a whale. crazy.

it was a southern right whale, and the rope went around it's head, around it's tail, and then had a buoy dragging along at the end. i am really tired, and writing this one paragraph at a time because there's so much to say, so i might abridge a little bit. so basically, we spent a couple hours spotting the whale, losing the whale, and spotting it again. then, once we spotted it, the smallest boat would race over to it, where stef would try to cut the line off it's tail. the head was just going to be impossible, because the sea was so choppy, by the time we spotted the whale, the head was already gone. so our objective was just to get the buoy off the end of the line, so that it wouldn't drag and hopefully the rest of the rope would then fall off on it's own. after a few hours, we were successful.

it was probably one of the most physically challenging things i've ever done. it was so cold, and i was holding on so tightly for so long that justin had to undo the clips on my life jacket when we got back because i had no dexterity. that said, given the choice, i would not have switched to the big (dry) boat. it was such an experience, adam and i just looked at each other and laughed the whole time. i don't have any pictures, but justin and fiona took some, so hopefully i can get some of those for you. sorry this was so poorly written, i'm sure it didn't come across as impressive as it should have. but... i helped rescue a whale today!

update: so... justin's pictures kind of sucked. hopefully fiona (who is a professional photographer) got something better. but for now... i'm the one with the black sleeves.