FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2009, K-pod IN THE MORNING, J-pod IN THE AFTERNOON

FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2009, K-pod IN THE MORNING, J-pod IN THE AFTERNOON

What a gorgeous day in "Paradise"!

Early morning reports had J-pod of Southern Resident (Fish-Eating) Killer Whales up to 70km (45 miles) away from Victoria at the North end of Lummi Island in the San Juan Island Archipelago.

As we headed out of Victoria Harbour and turned East towards the San Juans, we had visions of a very long trip with only a 50/50 chance of getting Five Star Whale Watching's passengers on scene for our morning trip...Then we heard rumours of fisherman seeing whales off to the West and we did a 180 degree turn to investigate. Lo and behold, working with other boats in the area we found K-pod near Albert Head. We then spent some of the morning trip at Race Rocks Marine Protected Area.

Our afternoon was almost the reverse: We started to head West, but turned to the East when we heard that J-pod had reached Eagle Point on San Juan Island and was moving North at a steady 6 or 7 knots (11 kph). We were so lucky as the weather at our first option to the West had turned quite rough, and as we headed East and North the seas were calm and it was warm in the Spring sunshine.