Wednesday, September 19

This morning, the sun was shining as we headed out of the harbour. We set off in a south-westerly direction into the Juan de Fuca Strait to begin our search. The whole boat had their eyes on the horizon for the sign of a dorsal fin or a blow. We continued West and as we reached the area off Otter Point the blow and dorsal fin of a humpback whale was spotted. As we sat enjoying the view of the humpback surfacing then throwing its tail flukes in the air as it went down on a deeper dive, we realized that there was another humpback close by. After some excellent views we headed back with a stop at Race Rocks to view the Californian and Stellar Sea Lions hauled out on the rocks.

The sun continued to shine for our afternoon trip and we set off to the area where we had left the humpback whales earlier. On the way someone spotted a group of Dalls Porpoise in the distance so we slowed down the boat to get a closer look. The porpoises decided they wanted a closer look at us and started swimming close to the boat and playing around in the wake of the boat. We had spectacular views of the Dalls porpoise swimming very quickly underwater. We soon found a humpback in the same area where we had been watching them earlier. We turned off the engine and were treated to wonderful views of the humpback surfacing and throwing its tail flukes into the air for a deeper dive. Although humpbacks can travel quite a distance while on a deeper dive and surface far away from the boat, our humpback continued to surface within view of the boat letting us sit in silence with the engine turned off. Everyone got fabulous photos as the humpback decided to "log" (float around) at the surface for several minutes allowing us to hear him breathe. Unfortunately the time came to leave the humpback and head back to Victoria after a stop off at Race Rocks to view the seals and sea-lions.