Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 08/12/19 | 5:30pm
What a lovely trip!
Captain Pete and I headed out of Friday Harbor and towards hopeful reports of whales! We booked it down south through the San Juan Channel, past a beautiful lighthouse off of Cattle Point and into the open waters. We boated west towards Canadian waters. We reached Vancouver Island and neared Victoria. We came pretty close to land before we found orca whales!
Here we found a pod of four whales who I absolutely love! Definitely one of my favorite pods in this region: the T18s. We have grandma, mom, and her two huge adult sons. This orca family is transient, aka Bigg’s orca whales and were seen searching the rocky shoreline for harbor seals! You could tell that these whales were on a mission as their giant dorsal fins cut through the water. When hunting, the orcas work together like an underwater wolf pack and they work as a family to take down that prey.
It was picturesque as the sun set behind the whales and illuminated their blows. With every breath their exhalations were glowing around them like halos. Beautiful. I enjoyed telling my guests all about this family and all the fun facts about orcas in general!
We watched as people along the shoreline excitedly ran towards the sea to watch the passing orcas. So funny.
Eventually, we turned and headed back home. Along the way, multiple people spotted harbor porpoises! We watched as the sun set further and turned everything into brilliant rainbows! Then Mount Baker emerged from behind the clouds and the almost full moon shone huge in the sky.
Wow! What a wonderful day.