Depoe Bay is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon, located on U.S. Route 101 next to the Pacific Ocean. The bay of the same name is a six-acre harbor that the city promotes as the "World's Smallest Navigable Harbor." It's a very cool tourist town with many shops and fishing charters located right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, plus whale watching tours. |
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Below: Depoe Bay - World's
Smallest Navigable Harbor |
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Below: The other side of
the bridge at Depoe Bay - looking out towards the Pacific Ocean. |
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Lee and Karen Duquette signed
themselves and Ilse Blahak up for a one-hour whale watching trip. Tradewinds
Charter told them that because of Depoe Bay's closeness to the ocean
(in fact, less than a minute by boat from their dock), there WILL be
whale sightings in no time. They also stated that at this time they
have resident whales in the harbor. Dubbed as the "Whale
Watching Capital of the Oregon Coast", Depoe Bay has whale watching
almost year around. |
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Below: Ilse and Lee walked
down the stairs towards the dock. The two RV Gypsies have been on several
whale watching tours in other areas and have always seen lots of whales
up close. This was Ilse Blahak's first whale watching tour. And the
WORSE one that the two RV Gypsies have ever been on. They would NOT
take this cruise again, and will not recommend it either. |
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Below: A glance to the right of the dock and the bay leading to the Pacific Ocean. |
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Below: A seal swimming around
the dock area |
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Below: A big brown seal
resting on the shoreline |
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Below: A view of the shoreline as the boat entered the Pacific Ocean |
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Only ONE whale was seen this
trip, and it was always near the shoreline feeding. The whale hardly
ever came out of the water. It seemed that there was only one resident
whale around. Mostly all that could be seen was the whale spouting.
What a disappointment for Ilse Blahak. Apparently that has been the
normal sighting lately. Sure not what Lee and Karen Duquette expected
from "resident whales." |
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Below: It was quite cool,
breezy, and the water was choppy. The boat captain did not try to get
near the whale. Karen Duquette recommend that anyone going on this cruise
take a big zoom lens on their camera. This is one whale watching tour
that the two RV Gypsies would NOT do again. When they heard there were
"resident" whales, they surely had expected better
than one whale off in the distance. Of course, nothing is ever certain
with wildlife. |
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Below: Lee Duquette and Ilse
Blahak sat down and hung onto the railing for the return trip to the
dock. Karen Duquette remained standing between Lee and Ilse. The boat
was small and did NOT have any seats. The captain told everyone to keep
one hand on the railing at all times. (Is that enough to keep someone
from going overboard????) |
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Below: Back at the dock, Karen
Duquette watched and photographed a seal as it swam towards the shoreline
and snatched the remains of a fish away from a seagull. |
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The best whale watching tour
that Lee and Karen Duquette ever took was in Gloucester, Massachusetts
in 2011. To see those photos, click
here, but be sure to return to this page to continue with Oregon
adventures. |
Continue
viewing the two RV Gypsies' adventures in Oregon in the order they occurred
- 
If you have already seen all of the 32 sites in Oregon, 
