Friday, May 18, 2018

Orcas to port!


After a quick walk to the hardware for a five gallon bucket we were off from Squamish 10:30, just after the inflow winds picked up.  The interior from Squamish heats up during the day which pulls in cool air from Howe Sound.  The wind was 24 knots when we came in on Friday making docking adventurous.  About half way down Howe Sound we saw a whale watching tour boat buzz by to stop a couple of miles up.  As we got closer, Wendy spotted the blows.  First, two orcas on our starboard side then two or three to port.  I called the whale watching boat on the radio and we slowly passed by over about twenty minutes.  The whale boat said that these were transient orcas that eat mammals; seals, porpoise, etc.   The locals eat salmon and each local pod eats a different species of salmon.  Wendy and I have both read “Listening to Whales,” by Alexandra Morton.  It’s a great book about her lifelong studies of Orcas in the Broughton Islands where we spent last summer.   
The anchorage at Buccaneer Bay on Thornby Island displayed a wonderful sunset and only gave it up oh so slowly.
As usual, the picture does not do the sunset justice.


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