August 5th

IMG_6027

A fresh clear morning greeted the SV Tuan as we left harbor. Today's first sighting was the three brothers of the A36's, a resident pod of orca. Their synchronized porpoising suggested they were currently asleep, three abreast and heading straight for us. After some careful maneuvering we watch them gracefully cut through the water and head away across the strait. We didn’t have to wait long for our next excitement. Now we were watching nine members of the A12 matriline, another resident orca pod, as they all came to the surface to breath between deep dives. We observed several juveniles, an adult female and an adult male in one group and a little way ahead was another adult male and his mother, the group's matriarch - a riveting sight to be sure. Having watched for several minutes we left them to their feeding and set of to catch up with the A36's who seemed to have woken up and had also started foraging for food. We travelled in parallel with them as we headed towards home. MV Cetacea spotted 3 humpbacks and also saw the same groups of orca and listened to their vocalizations over the hydrophone, capping of another great day of whale watching around the archipelago.