Saturday, August 9

Orcas, harbour seals, eagles, a minke whale and even a brown pelican! These were just some of the amazing animals passengers aboard the Orca Spirit were able to see today. Once again, we had whales on all three tours!

Captain Brad spotted some killer whales just off the Victoria waterfront on our 9 am trip. We were able to identify the large group of resting whales as J-pod with a few members of L-pod including Faith (L57). Seeing a group of 25+ whales surfacing and diving in near unison is an amazing event and one that our passengers were able to witness this morning. We travelled with the whales as they made their way east, past the scenic Trial Island lighthouse and off the southern tip of Discovery Island. Off of Discovery Island, the whales began to wake up and thrilled our guests (and crew) with spyhops and even a couple of breaches. As the whales passed by, we cruised the east coast of Discovery and Chatham Island, finding several harbour seals (and pups) and even had a mature bald eagle flyover. The final stop of our journey was the Chain Islets, where we spotted a brown pelican resting on the surface. This species is a rarity in these parts and was definitely a highlight of the trip.

For the afternoon trip, we travelled to San Juan Island near False Bay where we had another outstanding whale experience. Highlights of our time with the whales included two huge breaches as we were arriving on scene, some fantastic orca calf acrobatics and a lovely encounter with J28 (Polaris) and her sister J35 (Tahlequah). A thrilling visit from an unidentified female (most likely J11) in which she swam slowly by our boat, slapping her pectoral fin along the way was one of my more memorable experiences in 4 years of doing this. On the way back to Victoria, we had a great encounter with a minke whale near Beaumont Shoals - a marvellous way to end another awesome adventure!