36 Boating New Zealand
in their boat Clair de Lune, and spent a few days together
exploring the lake and the waterfall. We made the most
of swimming without wetsuits after discovering that the
seawater in this part of the inside passage is warm, 22°,
compared to the 11° water everywhere else.
Our next spot was Cortes Island, famous in this part
of the world for its oysters. Fortunately for us there were
no blooms of PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning), and we
ate more oysters than I thought possible. It was here that
we had our first close whale encounter. Multiple pods of
humpbacks were cruising up and down the channel, and
we took the dinghy out for a closer look. That night we fell
asleep to the sound of them feeding lazily nearby.
After exploring long-abandoned logging camps and
commandeering a canoe for a paddle up Robertson Lake,
we headed north towards the Broughton Archipelago. As
we were setting off, a whale-watching boat came zooming
towards us and told us to take it slow as there were
humpbacks in the area.
No sooner had it sped off in search of other giant
cetaceans, an enormous humpback longer than the boat