Friday, August 1
This morning was another wonderful adventure aboard the Orca Spirit. We journeyed to San Juan Island in some light fog on the quest to find some resident orcas. It did not take long for our customers to see orcas, as we encountered a group offshore of False Bay. This group included the star of J-pod, the mature male known as Ruffles to his many fans! It was a flat calm wonderful serene morning, listening to the exhalations of many J-pod whales. We were fortunate as the fog lifted, allowing us a wonderful experience. As a finale to our whale encounter, we had Slick (J16) and her young and not yet named young calf, J42.
On the afternoon trip, we did not have to journey far as a group of L-pod whales had been located travelling inbound off of Sooke. By the time the Pacific Explorer arrived on scene the killer whales had made their way just east of Race Rocks. The group of whales included the large male Faith (L57) and five other whales. We spent some time watching Faith and a couple of other L-pod females before venturing further west to find another few whales in Race Passage. It was there we saw two amazing breaches. Being so close to Race Rocks, we were able to show our guests the wonderful ecological reserve where we saw elephant seals, California sea lions and several harbour seals, including one nursing its pup!