Olivia | July 4th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am / 5:30pm
What a fun Fourth of July! We started off both our 11:00am and 3:00pm tours seeing Bald Eagles, Harbor Porpoises and Harbor Seals. Would it really be Independence Day if we didn’t see any Bald Eagles? We even got the chance to see a Harbor Seal pup cuddling with its mother on the coastal shore of Flattop Island. I may have gotten particularly excited since it was my person first pup sighting of the season. This was thrilling to get a good look right away, as we had to travel quite a way to see some Bigg’s Killer Whales in Canadian waters.
During the 11:00am trip, we initially started to head south by Victoria to follow our original whale reports and decided to turn around and head north where they would be closer and in calmer waters. This was a good decision by Captain Gabe for not only giving us the chance to see Orcas, but the water absolutely was soother with warmer air than where we initially started to go.
We made our way through the Saanich Inlet towards Trincomali Channel and Saltspring Island for both trips to see the same family group of Bigg’s Killer Whales. Among the group, there was a very large male where the dorsal fin towered over six feet tall and amazed our passengers. I had such a great group for both trips with many squeals of excitement as they swam and socialized- we even saw some spy hops! We were one of the only boats out of Friday Harbor that made it far enough to see Killer Whales, but Captain Gabe and I were not going to disappoint on our favorite holiday.