Saturday, May 10

This afternoon, the Orca Spirit headed out into Juan De Fuca Strait in search of orcas and other wildlife. We headed east out of the harbour towards Trial Island and the Chain Islets. Our first stop of the trip was Great Chain Island, home to a nesting colony of double-crested cormorants. When we arrived at the island, we found the cormorants not in their nest, but on the water, waiting for a bald eagle that had perched on the nesting mounds to leave. Nearby, we cruised through the Chain Islets, and observed several harbour seals hauled out on the extremely low tide.

Travelling southwest of the Chain Islets, we headed southwest out into the strait when we encountered a huge group of harbour porpoise, easily numbering well over one hundred. These normally shy cetaceans were foraging in the waters around our boat with our engines shut off to minimize our impact. We listened to the quiet puffing of these miniature whales in the calm waters. It was a fantastic experience.

We left the porpoises and headed in a big south-western arc past Race Rocks. Our trip took us to Beecher Bay and into Whirl Bay where we encountered another majestic mature bald eagle perched in a tree. Our last stop of the trip was Race Rocks, where in addition to the historic lighthouse, we observed elephant seals, harbour seals and were thrilled with a fantastic northern (Steller) sea lion encounter. Shortly before leaving the ecological reserve, we noticed 3 sea lions swimming near the edge of the kelp forest. The sea lions were watching us as much as we were watching them. It was a lovely way to conclude another excellent trip.