Friday, September 7

Captain John's Tour Photos


We headed out into the Juan de Fuca Strait, and it was only a matter of about 10 minutes when we received a call from our Zodiac driver just ahead of us, she had found Orcas beside Trial Island. Within 15 minutes of leaving Victoria we were in the company of a group of Transients. They were scouting the shoreline in search of harbour seals before they started travelling back round to the West. We stayed with them for some time before heading out to Race Rocks. The mist started to close in around us but just before it became to thick, our naturalist on the top deck gave a shout that she thought she had seen a humpback in our wake. We stopped and took a while to look, and were rewarded with a half hour of watching the whale surfacing and throwing its flukes up before taking a deeper dive. There was just enough time to fit in Race Rocks, and even though the fog was quite thick (the smell gave away the location!), we still got a good look and the seals and sea lions hauled out on the rocks. Not a bad start to the day!

Our afternoon trip came across the Orcas in less time than the morning. About 10 minutes South of Victoria and the same group of Transients were still hunting but had now moved out into more open waters. We saw quite a bit of behaviour associated with them hunting marine mammals and at all times they were fairly unpredictable. We headed out to the area where the humpback had been spotted earlier, and patience was rewarded, after what felt like a long wait, the whale surfaced not far from the boat. Again we watched for a while, and got some great views of the underside of the tail. And finally to Race Rocks, where the fog had now lifted, even if the smell from the animals had not! The Californian sea lions were in full voice, barking all around us, and the Stellar sea lions tousling with each other along the shore line, rounded of the trip perfectly.