M/V Sea Lion | Thursday, May 2nd, 2019 | Naturalist Alexandria
We had a nice small group of guests today onboard M/V Sea Lion! As we were boarding for the trip it was pretty overcast but once we hit the water the clouds started to clear and the sun worked its way out! It was a little breezy through parts of this trip so it was so nice to have the beautiful sunshine while we were out on the water!
Once we hit the water we had heard murmurs of Resident Orcas up north. Unfortunately they were pretty far up north- well into Trincomali Channel. Captain Pete and I decided that it was certainly worth the trek to get to see orcas today, and our guests were very excited at the prospect of investigating these reports!
We started heading up San Juan Channel, traveling quickly attempting to cover as much ground as possible! We were treated to beautiful views of the San Juan Islands as well as many Canadian islands while we were on our way. It was such a beautiful afternoon and the sunshine, water, and green islands complemented each other very well.
As we reached Trincomali Channel we worked our way further up north- at this point actively searching for these orcas! As we got closer we were excited to see them off our bow in the distance. We approached them and got some fantastic looks as we paralleled them. This group of individuals were all apart of J-Pod. This means they were resident orcas, and thus our salmon eaters. It was such a beautiful experience to get to see these incredible creatures out in the wild, swimming next to us!
After spending some time with these incredible animals, it was time to work our way back south- back into the United States- after spending most of our afternoon well into Canadian waters.
We worked our way back- quite a trek from Trincomali, but having just seen some incredible whales, it was well worth it! Gotta love when a beautiful sunny afternoon, whales, and a nice boat ride intersect to create a memorable trip!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria