Nine pm.  We just finished watching a movie and I went outside to turn off the genset.

The little Honda 2000eu is a quiet unit but even with that the hum of engine noise filled the cold night air.  I walked to the back of the woodshed and turned it off.  Surrounded by the shed on one side and a grove of tall trees on a windless black night, the silence fell over me like a deep, heavy snowfall.  I could almost hear my heart beating it was so quiet.

I walked back to the house and was about to enter when I heard this tremendous ‘gasp-whoosh’.  It seemed to be just yards away.  It was a whale.  Then another huge ‘gasp-whoosh’.  It was two whales!  Two whales-in-the-night making a helluva racket right in front of the house!

And they were busy.  These guys were diving and blowing and probably working a school of fish or maybe even a seal or something.  Had to be Orcas.  And it sounded like like they were practically in my lap.

I called Sal and we stood on the deck looking out over the coal-black empty and listening to a lot of exciting whale business.  Couldn’t see a thing.  One minute they were right in front of us and the next they were a hundred or so yards away.  Our heads moved in unison at the sounds but we didn’t get a glimpse of a thing.

Interesting.  After forty years of being together, we finally got a chance to watch the real submarine races.