June 24th, 2014

Dom and Felippe leave today... it won't be the same without them. I woke up extra early to give them a hug goodbye, we stayed up really late last night drinking ginger ale and playing cards... just laughing and laughing. Turns out you don't need alcohol to have a good time, you just need a great group of people. 

Today was an exciting day, which in reality is bad. We hope for boring. We met up with the Klasvik team, which was great because we got to see Neils, Christoff, and Coryn. At first it was peaceful just hiking around and enjoying the great view. Later they went off to their other beach and we continued monitoring. I'm with the new girl Rachel today and Victoria.. And of course we're in Edgar the other beast mobile.

 But what started as a fun day with friends, became stressful very quickly.

A pod.

Now normally seeing a pod of whales would be amazing. I recently went to Mexico on a whale watching tour, and seeing whales in the ocean is the most exhilarating feeling in the entire world.

To see them breaching and swimming free, with their families, living their life as it was meant to be is the greatest feeling.

But not here.

When you're here and you see a pod it means a totally different thing. First thing we do is try to see what type of pod it is, dolphin, whale? How large the pod is. And most importantly have the whalers noticed.

The whole point of being here is for something called a grind. A tradition where they send out groups of boats, coral the whales into a nearby cove, beach them, and then the people of the town come down with weapons and kill them.

What we do on patrol everyday is try to see the pod first, and then get our boats to the whales before the whalers do. Because we can steer them to safety, instead of to their untimely death.

So seeing a pod knowing that we couldn't be the only ones who noticed them. Is very scary. Hearts racing, Sheer panic. But you panic later, now is the time to focus. We make the calls, get Neils back over here and begin to pay closer attention. Which direction is that boat heading. The number of boats moving in the same direction. Everything matters. Every detail could mean a whale living or dying.

Hours go by. Of watching, waiting, hoping as the pod moves further away. Eventually we get told by the leaders that the pod seems to be far enough out and no boats have made a move so its safe for us to move back to our other beaches.

We have yet to eat or take a break so we head down to the local store, just as were about to park.

"ring ring"

The pod was re-spotted on the other side of the island. And off we go go go again.

Back at Vestmanna with Neils, our other teams are at the other killing beach, each one covered by multiple teams. Each of us ready and waiting.

We climb up to the top of a nearby cliff with binoculars keeping watch. The anticipation may be killing us, but the longer we sit there with nothing happening means the better chance of the whales living.

Hours go by. and we finally head home. But the threat of the pod being found keeps me up the rest of the night. It's hard to sleep knowing what could be happening, Even with night crews patrolling there is no rest for the wicked thoughts.