Saturday, May 24

It was a beautiful afternoon with sunny skies and calm seas as the Pacific Explorer with its crew of Megan, Corey and Captain Brad headed to San Juan Island to find J-pod. We found J-pod off the southern end of San Juan foraging in small family groups. Passengers and crew alike were thrilled with a fantastic pass from Granny (J2), the 97 year-old matriarch to start our trip! We saw an amazing breach, but the highlight for many of our passengers was the antics of a young orca calf. This playful little whale treated us to a couple of cute "half-breaches" for lack of a better term as it swam in close proximity to its mother. We enjoyed the whales with the majestic Mount Baker as a back drop. With whales in the area every day for almost two weeks, and the anticipated arrival of K and L pod, the whale-watching will only get even better!


Friday, May 23

The Pacific Explorer headed out this calm afternoon with Captain John, marine naturalists Tim and Sheenah, and a keen bunch of passengers eager to see some orcas. We had gotten a report that our Resident J-pod was south of Pile Point on San Juan Island (USA), and so ventured east out of Victoria across into US waters. Approaching on scene passengers got their first glimpse of a killer whale when the sprouter male J26 (aka Mike, 17 yrs old) surfaced with that large (around 4-5ft) floppy dorsal fin. It will be a few more years before the cartilage in his dorsal fin completely matures, but it is very impressive nonetheless. The whole pod was spread at least a few miles apart, but passengers were able to witness J26 meet up with another 17 year old sprouter male, J27 (aka Blackberry). These two teenage males are often seen travelling together, which is quite a sight as both are said to be a little bit “cheeky”
or “show offs” when in each other’s company. We witnessed them surface together, alternating speeds and zig-zagging across each other’s path. Boys will be boys! After viewing these two young males swim along with their siblings and parents trailing behind (J16 Slick is the mother of J26 Mike, J33 Keet, J36 Alki, and J42 unnamed; J11 Blossom is the mother J27 Blackberry, J31 Tsuchi and J39 Mako) we made our way across to the Chain Islands where we saw plenty of Harbor seals hauled out on the rock. It is coming up to pupping season and we are seeing more and more pregnant females hauled out on these shallow island embankments. We were fortunate enough to see at least a couple of pups within the group. It is still a little bit early to be pupping, but come a couple of months time, this place will be teaming with them! After viewing these “rock sausages” we headed across to the main chain island where there were around 20 cormorants sitting on their nest, but not for long! Along came two bald eagles and\swooped down to claim their place on the cormorant’s nest. The cormorants and gulls went bezerk and the skies were filled with a sea of black cormorants and white gulls. Seems as though these bald eagles are quite intimidating! It was definitely an awesome sight, with passengers (and this marine naturalist!) getting a unique peek into the lives of marine birds. It was a fantastic way to end what was a great trip.