Awwwww - it's a baby!

Some days are just great.  Some are spectacular.  Today was beyond that.  When I ran north for my afternoon trip, I had a group of Orcas heading south from the north, and a group heading north from the south.  All I had to do was position myself at the right place at the right time... and, it all worked out!  I couldn't believe there weren't more boats watching this.  All kinds of Orcas activity: spy hops, a couple of great breaches, tail slaps, pectoral slaps, lots of porpoising... just a great afternoon on the water.

For the evening trip, I lucked out... the other boat was full of teenagers, with a few adult chaperones (a charter)... I had all adults, what I will call "the regular guests." ;-)  The whales had already moved quite a bit further south, but we were able to find them... all the while, looking at a very large fog bank to the north and west, moving our way.  And this "show" was even better: more whales, more activity, more breaches, and the star of the show: the newest member of J-Pod who was born just 4 days ago!!  If there was ever a time when I wish I had enough hands to drive the boat AND take photos, this would be the time... some of the adults were "pushing" the baby, showing it how to porpoise.  We saw "baby spy hops"... it rolled over and showed us its little pink belly.  Words do not describe how cool this was, and I have no photos to show you.

When it was time to head back in, I told the guests that this would be our "last looks"... and there were two more breaches and another "baby spy hop."  The guests were absolutely gushing!  OK, so was I.

On the way back in, we saw some Stellar Sea Lions and a couple bald eagles - a great ending to a great day.  I did have time to shoot this sunset with my phone on the way...

That lighter area you see just above the terrain is the fog bank moving across the island, coming in from the west.  Boats that were in the area where had just been were in thick fog... the viewing had been great, our timing was very fortunate.

This was one of those rare days that I would have paid to have the privilege of driving this boat to watch what we saw with the whales.  Yes, it was THAT good!