Day 6 - Eastsound and down!

Orcas Island managed to live up to its name, for today we be seeing Orcas!  We awoke to a steady rain this morning at our hotel in Eastsound, but we were undeterred and boarded our tiny craft in search of whales!  Our clothes were damp but our sprites were, uh, well they were sort of damp too (it was really raining hard ;-)  Anyhow, we cruised through some very beautiful scenery on our way in to Canadian waters were there were reports of recent sightings.  Our boat had two naturalist that provided information about everything we were seeing along with our captain who was the historian.

After a short 30 minute cruise, we spotted.....Boats!  Not bad news actually, as this was a flotilla of Orca watching boats that were following a pod of Orcas!  We joined in and quickly spotted a whole pod of Orcas swimming along in the rain.  We all jumped outside and got an eyeful of these awesome mammals.  The naturalists on board were able to tell us their names and all about how old each of them were and how they were related (or not).  Lots of stories and information on what we were seeing and why they were doing what they were doing.  One cool little side note: our captain was on the radio with a small little research boat that had four people on it monitoring the Orcas.  There were cold and exposed out in the weather, so we pulled alongside and provided them with hot coffee!  

All too soon, the Orcas were left for others to watch and we turned off to go and see other things.  Lots of Bald Eagles and sea lions as well as a couple of exotic deer left over from an old hunting island.  The area is littered with small little islands and outcroppings and it makes for some very cool sightseeing.  All in all, the tour was highly successful and equally highly recommended!  Fantastic boat and crew!  Our experience must not be too unique as the front desk clerk at our hotel was noticeably relieved when we told her which boat we were taking the tour on.  It was Eclipse Charters if you're ever in the area and are interested www.orcasislandwhales.com    (The Orca in the photo is named Mike and he is a member of the J-pod)

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting our stuff together for our early morning trip to Friday Harbor.  From there we are hoping to catch another ferry to Sidney BC where we can then drive down to Victoria.  For the next two days we will be at the Oak Bay Beach hotel.