[Alexandria | 04/5/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm]
Today we had quite an awesome adventure! As we headed out it looked like it might be a bit stormy, and Captain Brian and myself knew it might get a little choppy out there but we were so excited about the day that we couldn’t wait to hit the water!
Today was a special day because as we were down on the dock getting M/V Sea Lion ready for the trip, Captain Brian heard a rumor of some orcas being spotted off the Washington State Ferry that had just pulled into harbor. We decided we HAD to go investigate this report!
Captain Brian and myself excitedly pushed off the dock and headed out to pop out into San Juan channel to see if we could get eyes on these big black and white things! Sure enough Captain Brian spotted some blows across the channel, and we were in luck! As we were watching these individuals to check out their direction we noticed that we had some trailing from behind as well!
We hung out in between the two groups so that we could keep eyes on both, while we reported these orcas to some other colleagues who we then passed them off to.
Now was the fun part- we returned to the dock and picked up our awesome guests for the day! We boarded and headed out! The wind had picked up a bit so we got everyone rain slickers and blankets to keep warm. We hung out with these orcas for awhile and then headed out to see if we could find anymore awesome wildlife. We decided it would be a good idea to utilize the wind break that Speiden Island offered, so we headed to check out the island! We enjoyed looking at some sheep and deer and then eventually decided we should check out our orca friends one more time!
We caught back up to the orcas that we had seen, and this time got even more amazing looks at them! One surfaced nearby and we were able to hear their exhalations! We then worked our way back, because we couldn’t top that amazing experience! There were definitely a few waves and out there and everyone got their adventure on, but it just made the experience that much more exciting!
Until Next Time,
Naturalist Alexandria