Orcas, Humpbacks, Sea lions, Sails

What a fantastic day! SV Tuan started the morning off looking at 2 Humpback whales not too far from home. This mother and baby were engaged in some restful behaviour, not moving too fast, and taking long breaths at the surface. We even got a great look at both of their tails as they took a deep dive. A few minutes later we found over 25 Stellar Sea lions hauled out on a rock near to where the Humpbacks had just dove. The sounds of these animals roaring was like listening to a pride of lions squable over prey. As the breeze picked up and the sun became partially shrouded by a patch of fog we next encountered a group of 9 Orcas. These animals were spread out foraging for salmon and seemed to be having great success. We hoisted the sails and dropped the hydrophone and while tacking this way and that could hear their intermittent vocalizations to each other and their echo-location click trains which they emit to locate these salmon they were feeding on. As we turned for home the wind suddenly dropped right out of the sails and the afternoon got hot.