feb1-2

Saturday, Feb. 15, '03
Noon - 5:30p.m.
Visitors - 78

Boats - 6 departures; 3 arrivals

Cloudy with intermittent fog, some sunny breaks

Luna spent the day in Jacklah Bay ignoring all boats in and out of the area - that all boaters behaved themselves and didn't attempt to lure Luna in probably helped. According to those working around the docks, Luna has not been in any closer since Monday. Having arrived so late today, I was not surprised to be met by a small crowd. People had apparently begun arriving at around 8:00 a.m.

Gold River is hosting another hockey tournament this weekend so we have visitors from all over the north Island once again. They all seem to know about our little star. By the time I left at 5:30 p.m., 78 whale watchers had come to see Luna. No one got a great look at him even with the binoculars, but everyone seemed to appreciate at least having some questions answered. Unfortunately, the most popular question of what is being done about Luna and why it hasn't been done sooner is one I cannot give satisfactory response to.

Between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m., RCMP officer Chris Swain paid a visit to the dock to see how the day was going. He was surprised at the number of people who had been there. Chris, like the other RCMP members, will be making regular patrols of the dock from now on and is keen on protecting Luna. Having that RCMP interest and presence is quite reinforcing, although, one woman vowed - to Chris's face no less - that given the chance she would definitely touch Luna regardless of the information we had given her! At that we were speechless.

Luna did come closer to the dock at about 4:45 p.m. but headed back toward Jacklah Bay by about 5:00. A prawner who had motored to the opposite shore to check his traps at about that time had to come back into dock when Luna decided to check him out. A very disgruntled prawner returned complaining to a buddy on the dock that "that bugger won't let me check my traps." Luna is a real pest to the workers there, though they will defend him vehemently.

Sunday, Feb. 16, '03

11:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m.

Visitors - 54

Rainy and dark

Very quiet when I arrived - only the mill site security patrol who confirmed that Luna was last seen on Monday. That is encouraging.

At 12:15p.m, the Scott - Melissa came into view through Jacklah Bay. I watched as the vessel slowed and, sure enough, there was Luna right alongside. Luna followed this boat into the wharf area behind the UCHUCK III much to the joy of the two young boys on board. Neither child made any attempt to reach out to Luna (good boys!) just watched in delight as Luna pushed their boat around and rubbed up against it. 'Dad' seemed to have some difficulty unloading while being bumped so.

By 1:00 p.m. the rain had subsided and the watchers began arriving. During that hour between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m., 54 visitors showed up. Only once did Luna come to the lower pier and down ran the crowd to see him. I was able to successfully urge them back to the upper level but it was Luna's inaccessibility and not my charm that did it - due to the full moorage at the time he could not get right up to the dock to see his admirers. He lost interest there and returned to the Scott-Melissa on the opposite side.

Very few of the visitors today were from Gold River; most were in town for the hockey tournament and the others had driven from the Comox Valley or Campbell River to see Luna. One couple I spoke with had spent all day Saturday driving from Chilliwack for the sole purpose of seeing the whale that had so recently made headlines. They had heard of the charges laid on Feb 10 and felt that this was a must see.

There were more people heading for the dock when I left but a very sick child was beckoning me home. Chris said that he would be on sight for awhile and Lorraine from Air Nootka was keeping an eye on things. Lorraine brought to my attention the line up at the phone booth. News does travel fast.