(06/11/2017 - Kestrel 2pm Departure)
One of the best things about wildlife watching is that you never know what is going to happen. Every day is different and the day before doesn’t necessarily give you any indication of what the next day will be like. Yesterday there were orcas just outside of Friday Harbor, today we had to travel about 35 miles one way in order to catch a glimpse of these magnificent animals. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the sun was shining and the water was like glass. We headed the further West that I have ever been on a tour before, just West of Race Rocks near Victoria, British Columbia. We head reports of transient whales in that area and off we went! On our transit to that area we stopped to look at some harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions at Whale Rocks. It seemed as though it was playtime for the Steller’s and naptime for the harbor seals. Almost all of the Steller’s were in the water doing a lot of rolling and thrashing around, while all of the harbor seals were resting in the comfort of the bull kelp bed. We made the trek to the group of transient orcas who engaged in some traveling and serious tail slapping! We watched as the whole family surfaced together while traveling West, back out toward the open ocean. After getting our fill of the orcas we made our way back towards Friday Harbor but were surprised with a minke whale on the way! Sometime minke whales can be very illusive and this individual was one of those. We only saw him surface about twice before deciding to leave. We had a bit of an adventure today on our trip but it seemed like our guests appreciated going the extra mile to see the whales.
