Today’s forecast kept changing about every 2 hours. But I had a hearty group of passengers (limited to 20 to make sure everyone was comfortable) on board and when we left the dock the wind wasn’t too bad and it looked like the sky was clearing.

We headed north from San Juan Island to see what we could find. Spieden Island brought us some wonderful encounters with about 6 Steller Sea Lions rafting together in the water, lots of Big Horn rams and Fallow Deer and some awesome fly-bys from 2 mature Bald Eagles. The whole time the weather seemed to be improving and we only had a light chop on the water.

Then we slid by Sentinel rock to check out the 20 or so Harbor Seals hauled out and then headed on across Haro Strait to see what we could find. I am always scanning the water as we go, looking for fins of whales and porpoises.

We headed towards the Canadian Gulf Islands and as I was making the turn to start heading north up the strait something caught my eye to the west. Could it be?? No…., Maybe….., YES!!!!! An Orca Whale about 3/4 of mile in shore of us. You just never know how things are going to work out and today was definitely one of those days. We spent the next hour thoroughly enjoying our encounter with T14 (Pender) as we observed him diving and traveling and even lunging at one point. It looked as though he made several kills (probably Harbor Seals) while we were there. T14 is a very old and distinctive Transient Orca (mammal feeding) male who is seen traveling alone quite often.

As we turned to reluctantly leave I looked across Haro Strait at a solid wall of rain cloud. Uh Oh, here we go again. For about 15 minutes we cruised through heavy winds and snow (yes more snow), and then all of a sudden it broke again and the sun came out. It was quite a surreal experience that just added to the adventure of today’s trip.