Pup

Today was another perfect day here in Roche Harbor.  Blue skies and warm weather made for a pleasurable paddle around Henry Island.  During our lunch break we did some tidepooling to see the great diversity of life in the intertidal areas where we saw seastars, anemones, crabs, gobies, and all kinds of shellfish. On the water we saw lots of bald eagles, jellyfish, and seals.  A high point of the trip had to be a mother seal with her new pup coming within 10 yards of us...

Today's 5-hour kayak trip started out shaky, we were facing some pretty strong winds that ultimately made us alter our course of where we were going to paddle.  I'm sure glad we did change our direction though because we ended up encountering four orcas around Kellet Bluff area.  The big male in the group was putting on quite the show for us as well.  We saw him fully breach three times as well as do a couple cartwheels, all of this occurring only about 100 yards in front...

We started out the tour by paddling from Roche Harbor through Mosquito Pass and out into the Haro Straight.  This is typically my favorite part of the paddle going from the narrow Mosquito Pass out into the openness of the Haro Straight. The conditions were perfect today, comfortable temperatures out on the water with glass-like water.  You couldn't ask for better weather!  We also had some close interactions with wildlife.  A momma seal was seen escorting her pup up the...