“I once wrote: “My soul sings from the eye of the whale in the sea”. All I know for sure is that whales and dolphins are known to be highly intelligent beings. As to why they have attracted my attention significantly I do not really know. My husband and I have spent wonderful times with them either sea kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, or just visiting with them in 3 calving bays of Baja where the Pacific Grey Whales go to birth and mate in our winter time. 

Baby Grey Whales were so curious and their mothers actually brought them to us and lifted them up with her back as if to present them to us – many times!!. The calving lagoons are protected so one can only go out with a licensed Mexican Panga boat driver. It is a 13 foot sciff with a motor, which gets turned off as soon as whales approach.

We found that we could recognize the patterns of barnicles around the blow holes of repeat visitor whales. Some would actually come back for more attention. They liked to have their chins rubbed, so we could reach all the way around to their chins below and rub back and forth. One baby came back into my arms 3 times, gently pumping its tail as the current tried to separate us.

Our Grey Whale photos came from trips to Baja and also up north, on the Pacific side of North Vancouver Island, where we camped on the remote wilderness island called Flores. 

Grey whales feed there in the bay during our summer time. They do deep dives to the bottom where they take in plankton and krill through their baleen. To make their dives, they rise up and then flip up their tail up before going down to feed for about 15 minutes before coming back up for air. Here is my photo of one of those 60 foot Grey Whales flipping its tail in the normal deep dive going down to feed.

While sitting in our double sea kayaking 1/2 mile out in the remote unpopulated bay all alone except for 5 Grey Whales, one of them decided to ‘check us out’ after we had been sitting out there for an hour. The whale came directly under our kayak perhaps 2 inches below the bottom of our boat and then turned down for its ‘deep dive’ directly on the side of our boat. We watched stunned and open-mouthed as first the head and body and finally the tail disappeared straight down just inches from us. 

Surprisingly, a flat back-eddy was created – with a 20 foot diameter circle surrounding the center of our boat. We never felt a thing – although the turbulent water currents following the tail as it went down looked like the action of a turbine! 

We also saw Humpback whales from boats in Maui and while scuba diving with them in VaVa’u – the 2nd island of Tonga, and the island country of Niue.

 We swam with wild dolphins off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas while on a week log trip on a trimaran sailboat dedicated to that purpose.

We sea-kayaked with Orca Whales in the inland passage of North Vancouver Island many times in our old fiberglass double sea kayak.

For all our Vancouver Island and Flores Island trips we camped out of our double sea kayak, stuffing all our gear into the boat for 10 days (or so) trips. Seeing the gear spread out at camp one wonders how it all got into that little boat with room for the two of us too!

Images or impressions from these experiences continue to appear in my paintings, like the rainbow and sunset views from camp seen below.”  - G.P.L.