WOW! What a magnificent day!
We were so lucky to be able to spend the majority of the day with very, VERY playful Orca!
After our 24 nautical mile journey out to the canyon it was only moments after dropping off the continental shelf that a young pod of orca were spotted in amongst a significant amount of white wash that they were making. On further inspection the playful youngsters were head-butting, pushing, spy hopping, rolling on top of each other and more!
An hour passed and this behaviour continued with intermittent rest breaks for the orca, it wasn’t long before we looked at the time and it had now been two hours! We couldn’t believe they were still being this playful!
The longer the pod stayed with us the more relaxed and confident they were feeling and pushing each other closer to the boat. Some orca from this pod moved off and a few others came in to join in on the fun, it must have been something in the water!
This went on for four hours!!! The ecstatic passengers proving they had just as much energy as the orca by taking photos and gushing the entire time and thankful that we are able stay out in the canyon for a FULL DAY to witness this very special interaction. The vessel spent more time at an idle than moving today as always the orca were leading the interaction by approaching when THEY wanted. Their behaviour had slightly changed from this morning as they were now surfing the swell, crashing into each other and then looping back around to do it again!
This clearly wasn’t the only pod having fun out there as El Notcho and his pod came rushing in directly under our bow and off to the starboard side, disappearing into the deep blue as quickly as they appeared. Not long after his close pass another large family pod zoomed past giving us our final eye full of orcas for the day!
If that wasn’t enough for one day we were greeted by a pod of about twenty common dolphins riding our wake on the way home, catching a lift in closer to shore.
We are incredibly lucky to be able to access this amazing area and witness days like today. For many just seeing the orca was a tick off the bucket list and in our book it was a 10/10… and we cannot wait to do it again tomorrow!
We hope you enjoy the photos provided by myself and Machi Yosida, we couldn’t decide which one we love more!
