Whales Map August 9. 2011 Sunset Tour by Victoria BC
Occasionaly our resident orca whales take a day or two sabbatical and go out to the Pacific, likely to survey the trend of salmon coming in (no one really knows why).
Yesterday, boats from Victoria reported the whales were returning and had reached the Jordan River coming east to San Juan Island. For our 1:30 tour the large group of whales had not come far east enough for us to reach.
When departing for the 5:30 trip, Captain Craig had learned that the whales had progress 5 miles east of Race Rocks, which is apprx in front of Victoria break water. The passengers were advised that the wind was increasing and that the water could be a bit lumpy.
For those that wanted to be up front, they were given long yellow slicker to wear. Well, it DID get lumpy. While reaching Vancouver Island it was learned that the orca whales had stalled out. But after coming this far, it was decided to continued on.
Some hardy guests had decided that the spray and water was quite fun and stayed up front on the bow as long as they could. The effort was well worth it.
When the 'super pod' was reached, cheers of excitement could be heard through out the boat! The whales were socializing in a tight group. We could see about 30 of them at a time from the boat.
Because of the extended travel, the Sea Lion could only stay on scene with the whales for 20 minutes.
The return home was rocky, but the guests did not even notice because of what they had just seen and experienced. The boat pulled in about 9;30 - one hour late. This was truly a "SUNSET" cruise.
Captain Craig Melvin, Naturalists Alex Hill and Kristen Dominici