An Active Day...

An interesting day of whale watching.  We had a fun family who chartered the boat - Mom, Dad, and 9 year old twins (brother and sister).  As I walked them to the boat (they were on time - one in a row!), I asked what they had in mind for their day on the boat.  Mom said, "Orcas!  My kids love Orcas.  If we could see one whale, and if it happened to be from J-Pod, it would make our whole trip."

No pressure, huh?  ;-)

Today was first mate/naturalist Rachel's birthday.  If a person has to work, this is a pretty good way to spend the day.  (I'll try to remember that on my birthday).

We had a whale report - it wasn't close... but these nice folks were pretty flexible with a return time.

The bonus: it is J-Pod.

The whales were approaching Active Pass, in the Canadian Gulf Islands.  We got to them before they entered the pass, with only two other whale watch boats on the scene.  We had about a half hour before other commercial operators started showing up.  J-Pod was in fine form, with all kinds of delightful surface activity.  The kids on our boat were squealing and clapping - it was fun to listen to them while the whales did their thing.

By the time the whales entered Active Pass, there were a dozen or so whale watch boats, more than a few private boats, two big BC Ferries, and a bunch of active J-Pod Orcas.

I was training, and explaining... had my hands full while we spent time with the whales (they were constantly on the move), so I didn't get any good images.  Here's a shot where the whales had been a second earlier...

And one with a female and calf out of focus...

But nothing to show the breaches, spy hops, somersaults, porpoising, etc, etc, that this family got to see.

Rachel was able to get some photos (used for identifying), so maybe she will send one I can post here.

Turned out to be a great whale viewing day and a good teaching situation - I explained my thoughts on the routing I took to get to the whales, why I positioned us where I did, what to watch for in certain areas, crossing decisions with an ocean freighter, radio use, and plenty of other things.  I was so busy, I forgot to eat lunch... no wonder my belly was growling when we returned to the dock.

Beautiful weather once again, and near calm water conditions all the way there and back.  A fun day!