It was an incredibly beautiful day beginning with dense fog and ending with the brightness of a calm fall day that made everyone on board feel alive and so appreciative of the abundance of marine life in the area and the natural beauty that our local waterways provide. Little by little the fog began to clear and suddenly our first humpback whale was sighted, and so began the sighting of several more whales as the fog cleared further and we began to see far out into the Queen Charlotte Strait and across to the BC Mainland and Coast Range Mountains; the view-scape was and is magnificent, but on a day such as today, it truly was breathtaking with blue calm waters stretching far off into the distance and upon it a myriad of bird species gathered to feed while humpback whales could be seen in every direction. At one time, three whales were sighted surfacing and feeding together, another whale breached nearby twice, pectoral fins could be seen raised high and sunlight glistening on bull kelp as a whale surfaced from underneath the kelp, all of it was phenomenal! Because the whales were constantly moving about in the strong ebb current it was difficult to keep track of and count them all, with more seen further down in Blackfish Sound and far off to the west in the Queen Charlotte Strait and even as we made our way home through the Plumper Islands, another was sighted, some 8++ whales were sighted today! Bird watching was fabulous with large numbers of sooty shearwaters arriving to feed, often landing and diving simultaneously, their wing beat and gliding movement of flight just inches above the water was spellbinding to watch, as were the common murres, watching them dive deep down and disappear through the crystal clear waters was magic in the making. It was a blissful day of astonishing beauty and brilliant sightings. Other sightings included: harbour seals, stellar sea lions, rhinoceros auklets, common murres, glaucous-winged gulls, bald eagles, sooty shearwaters, red-necked phalaropes, pelagic cormorants, white-winged scoters, surf scoters and great blue herons.