Tuesday, June 2nd

This morning we traveled out of the harbour with a promising whisper of transients wafting through the air. With Captain John at the helm and Naturalists Cassie and Helen eager to go, we and 27 passengers made our way out on a flat, glistening sea. Only a half hour later, we came upon the same transient groups from the last few days, the T30’s and T100’s, at Constance Bank. We were the lone boat on the sea and after one hour, others arrived. After viewing the Orcas, we made our way to Race Rocks. Seals, Stellar and California Sea Lions abound to the rocks delighted all aboard and Elephant Seals were a treat. On the way back we made one more pass at our Orca friends and headed back to shore.

The 1pm tour continued where we left off this morning… Thus, we headed back past Race Rocks, initially, to check whether there was any feeding activity by the T30’s and T100’s. The animals were encountered west of Race Rocks; the sea remained calm, the sun was shining, and in these conditions we managed to get a nice encounter. The group was together and there appeared to be over 15 Orcas. Several Harbour Porpoise were also spotted in the area; however, no feeding by the transients was noted. After leaving the transients we headed back via Race Rocks, stopped to check out the Stellar and California Sea Lions, the Harbour Seals and an Elephant Seal…Then, just past Race Rocks, an unexpected surprise, the return of some members of L-Pod residents who had been spotted near Port Hardy just two days ago. An amazing trip for both the crew and our guests!

Monday, June 1st

We set out at 1:00PM with 10 passengers on the Pacific Explorer and headed south. We first made contact with the orcas off Dungeness bluff. The orcas were identified as the large group of transients seen the day before. Two large males were blazing ahead, one was most certainly T102, while the T100's followed, foraging in synchronization with one another in a typical offshore pattern. The orcas surfaced and dived in absolute unison. Twenty minutes later we spotted yet another group of T's travelling about 200m away, they were identified as the T30's. After a great trip we headed back to the harbour after following the two males, 5Nm off Green Pt. Fun was had by all!