Sunday, June 3rd

With news that J-pod was out of our range for the morning trip, we travelled north through Haro Strait in search of transient orcas and other marine wildlife. Our first stop of the tour was Spieden Island, where we saw Moufflon sheep and a surprise sighting of a California sea lion. These animals are more common off Race Rocks and should be starting to head south soon to their summer breeding colonies. We travelled next towards Mandarte Island, stopping first to look at a couple of bald eagles, then to watch a small group of foraging Dall's porpoise. At Mandarte Island, we saw nesting pelagic and double-crested cormorants, pigeon guillemots and many gulls. For our final stop of the tour, we stopped at a reef just off D'arcy Island to see a large number of harbour seals hauled out in between a forest of kelp. Although we did not see any orcas this morning, it was a spectacular trip with beautiful weather and a great group of guests.

For the 1 pm trip, we travelled to the waters off of Smith Island, several miles south of Lopez Island. There, we found J-pod in a playful mood. We saw several breaches and tail slaps and we were treated to to some spectacular vocalization. The star of the show was Ruffles, the 55 year-old male orca, who gave us a great pass! Satisfied with another excellent trip, we headed for whom.

The evening trip was an exhilarating experience for passengers and crew. We arrived on scene with J-pod just offshore of False Bay on San Juan Island where we encountered a rather energetic group of whales putting on quite a show both visually and acoustically. Almost immediately after we arrived, we saw our first breach, which would prove to be just one of many. The whales were spread out and travelling in their matrilines as they worked their way northward up the island. We were fortunate to see J16 (Slick) and her offspring, including her newest, J42. Ruffles (J1) as always did not disappoint as he gave us quite a pass! Tail slaps and other percussive behaviour were displayed and we also saw an amazing spyhop. It was yet another great evening adventure aboard the Orca Spirit.


Saturday, June 2nd

This afternoon we had word that J-pod was located on the southern end of San Juan Island. We left Victoria Harbour and drove east not even half an hour before we encountered the entire pod. A number of whales passed by and we had an exciting observation of 2 or 3 whales either hunting or playing. They were continuously swimming back and forth in the same area which, with a good pair of binoculars, was a great display to watch. On our return back to Victoria we stopped by the Chain Islands where we observed 2 Bald eagles sitting on top of a nest. We also got a good look at a bunch of Cormorants perching, flying and even diving into the water. Finally one of our passengers, whose daughter’s favorite animals are seals, was delightfully treated to numerous Harbour Seals tanning and swimming around the surrounding rocks.