Whales! Oh my.

This is what the Broughtons like like frequently. We chose the Broughtons for sun - boy did we go wrong. Most mornings we have awoken to fog, which usually burns off by noon - or three or four pm. Two days ago we had an incredible lightening storm with lots of rain. One unfortunate sailboat was crossing to Vancouver Island and was struck. They lost all their electronics. If I remember correctly we have had three glorious sunny days. They were wonderful and we really enjoyed them.

We have sailed on three or four occasions. The opportunity to sail is less than in the San Juans.

Despite this, we are having a great time exploring, fishing and crabbing.

I really felt the need to visit a large grocery store so we headed to Port McNeil on Vancouver Island. As we crossed Blackfish Sound, near Bold Head, Greg spotted a spout. We had seen some of the resident Orcas earlier and I really wanted to see a Humpback whale.




In no time at all we were within 300 ft of a "humpy". Then we noticed a large pod of white-sided Pacific dolphins approaching. They swarmed around the humpy and a feeding frenzy began. The humpback whale has baleen and feeds on small fish.



We turned off the engine and floated by the whale and dolphins for over 30 minutes. It was the most exciting wildlife experience I have ever had. The whale slapped its flukes and did barrel rolls. We could see the pleats in it's belly and scalloped edges of it's flippers.

Humpback whale fluke.

You can see how foggy it was. This made it very difficult to get good photos (sorry). All the bait fish must have been eaten or they moved away. The whale drifted away from us and the dolphins realized that there was a boat nearby. They all swam directly at us and swarmed the boat. They jumped, did somersaults, and rode the bow wake. While all this was going on, I spotted a second humpy about two miles away. The noise they make on exhaling in astonishing. You get goosebumps every time they do it.





Greg watches the dolphins as they swarm around Comocean.



When Greg increased our engine speed the dolphins peeled off and headed in the opposite direction. Enough playing, time to get back to eating. We continued on our way to Port McNeil and encountered yet another whale. This time it was a Minke. Unfortunately it was topside for only a short time and we only got a glance at it.

Now we are tied up to the Port McNeil Marina and enjoying some shopping and sightseeing. Last night provided a lovely sunset.