Wednesday, July 16th

Our morning was much like our ending to yesterday, no whales. But as yesterday’s tour had lots to offer so did this morning’s. We crossed the Haro Strait to the west side of San Juan Island (an American island ~25 miles east of Victoria). As we traveled south along the shore line all crew and guests kept their eyes pealed for whales. Once at whale rocks, the crew took a long hard look north up the San Juan channel and south east to the bottom end of the Rosario Strait but no luck. We were however fortunate enough to see about 3 dozen harbour seals on and around the rocks as they either basked in the sun or swam through the bull kelp in search of their next meal.

The afternoon proved to be more fruit full. As we were leaving the Victoria harbour we got wind of whales heading south through boundary pass. Boundary pass is one of many areas on our west coast that divides USA and Canada. We went up with J and K-pods as they foraged for food. I was happy to show the guests a close neat family lead by Slick (J16). This group is my personal favourite, as it has a sprouting male mike (J26, 17 yrs), his younger brother Keet (J33, 12 yrs), and two younger sisters Alki (J36, 9 yrs) and J-pods newest member J42 (unnamed, 1.5 yrs). The whales moved back and forth between Turn Point and Kleet Bluff as they foraged for salmon. At the end of our tour we said good bye to the whales and began our way home, making sure to stop at the chain islands to look at the harbour seals and cormorants.

Our final tour of the day was my personal favourite as we got a chance to get a great look at K-pod’s newest baby K42, a 6 week old calf born to mother K14. This black and yellow calf was a joy to watch as it synchronized its surfacing with its mother. We also got a chance to look at K42's older brother Scooter (K26, 13 yrs) as he traveled close by his family. Through the tour we also got a chance to see Cappuccino (K21, 22 yrs), K-pods only mature male, he was also spotted traveling with his older sister Raggedy (K40). After a great look we headed home all with a great scene of these large somewhat misunderstood teddy bears of the sea.