Orca Watching- Vancouver Island

After spending a week with Phan's family in Vancouver we caught the early morning ferry to Schwartz Bay, Vancouver Island and bussed down to the city of Victoria.
The ferry trip saw us cross the channel from Vancouver and enter the cluster islands south east of the larger Vancouver Island. The weather was cold, grey and windy but the scenery was great as we passed close by small islands that had a lot of forests as well as houses and docks scattered around.
Victoria has a nice harbour and after we checked in to a hostel Phan and I decided to book a whale watching tour to see seals and orca. As we arrived at one of the docks we saw a zodiac full of people ready to go. It worried me that they were all seated out in the open with only large jackets with hoods to protect them from the increasingly gloomy weather, and somewhat that were going near enormous killer whales in what is essentially a reinforced dinghy. The sales pitch sounded good so we booked the 2 o'clock tour.

After wandering the harbour and foreshore of Victoria and having a nice lunch in Chinatown, the rain started falling as we went to join our whale watching tour. We were pretty wet by the time we arrived to be fitted our in a full body suit to protect us from the rain. We also were given a beanie, gloves and glasses to “protect our eyeballs from the rain at high speeds, because you'll soon see it hurts”, comforting words.
As we pulled away from the dock for our 3 and a half hour tour my head was filled with the excitement of seeing orca, the hope I didn't get seasick and the regret that I had drunk a pint of Blue Buck ale just before walking here as I really needed to go.

The tour guide was right in that rain at 60km/h does hurt your face so we were all huddled as far inside our suits and hoods as we could get as the boat zoomed out of the harbour. First stop was to look at some seals laying around on rocks outcrops and there was also a lot in the water. I was glad to keep moving as a thought the boat stopped and rocking around would trigger my seasickness. We then had a 20 minute ride over to see large sea lions on their rock which were great to watch as they postured and made loud noises at our boat with one in the water sticking his head up to have a look at us. Again the swell was worrying my stomach but tried to think of other things, like my full bladder.
The boat then took us into US waters and along San Juan Island to see a wildlife reservation island that had bald eagle nests but unfortunately we didn't see any bald eagles.
Now another drive to where orca had been sighted that day, the tour that left in the morning had not seen any but they were definitely there. Now we had been going with the swell and now the boat was driving directly into the waves which made it very bumpy as the hull constantly smashed through the swell. I liked this as it was easier on my stomach than lolling around with the waves and I could lift up on my feet to go with the impact of the waves. Phan however could not touch the ground and was bracing her body against the smashing waves and getting bounced all over the place. She was VERY sore the next morning.
After about another 20 minutes of this we spotted orca fins and the boat drove right around in front of them so they would swim by us. By this stage the sun had even come out and we were able to take our hoods and glasses off and get a good look.
The view from the boat was great as the whales came right by and would even sky hop ( come straight up out of the water) to have a look at us. We first looked at a trail group of about 8 whales, the main group was in shore hunting salmon. There was another really large male hunting out to sea and we could see his dorsal fin in the distance. This group was a resident pod in that they live on the Canadian coast and only eat salmon. The other type are transient pods that eat mammals and travel from California all the way up to Alaska following food. By this stage my seasickness thoughts were forgotten and the boat would move on ahead of the whales to let them swim by. You could tell they would try and avoid us because they would swim along the top for ages and then approaching us would disappear and resurface a distance past our boat. We watched this group and also went and looked at the enormous male called Ruffles because of his dorsal fin and then we went to shore to view the feeding group but weren't able to approach the shore due to regulations.
We spent over an hour watching these great animals and they had had enough of us by the time we needed to head back to the harbour as they were diving every time we came near and would resurface a long way away. So we headed back at high speed, still smashing through the waves, it was a fun ride back past the expensive mansions along the coast but I think Phan was thinking more about the pain in her backside every wave the boat hit. And yes I made it back to dock without wetting my suit.

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