Our 7 am breakfast revealed more of Dan's previous life in the lumber industry and some of the pranks he had played - it was good to start the day with a laugh and a half!
We then headed off to Telegraph Cove - we passed the large saw mill and entered the quaint well preserved historical hamlet of Telegraph Cove. I ran to check with Stubbs, the operator, that the boat was going out as the wind was getting up and it was quite choppy on the water - it was definitely a good call by the Tide Rip re: moving their trip to yesterday as their boats were much smaller and the journey to Knight Inlet much longer - as it turned out yesterday was flat calm and sunny which worked brilliantly for the trip. Today needed a bigger boat as the waves were more challenging, but not enormous as we were in the lea of Vancouver Island, and also we would stay much closer to the harbour. It was a yes - the trip was going - so I waved to John on the other side of the harbour and he paid for the car park - we didn't want to invest $5 for nothing! I then walked back to join him and buy a coffee before joining others for the whale watching trip and boarding Captain Wayne's boat. The captain was a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police marine division officer and had been operating these tours for many years so knew about all the foibles of the sea in the immediate environs - so we felt very confident as we headed out and so we should have. Proof of the boats capability was John, he didn't feel queazy and he is a very good bell weather!
It was overall a great trip - we finally got to see the transient mammal eating orcas; they were very playful frequently breaching (today's photo) and just milling about. As they are matrilineal pods i.e. mums and offspring, girls and boys, stay with mum and for mating to occur these pods need to socialise with other pods to prevent incestuous behaviour. As they were in no hurry to move this may have been what they were doing when we saw them. These orcas are far quieter as they have to stalk their prey eg seals, sea lions etc - unlike the resident orcas who are more vocal as they pursue the herring who have less sensitive hearing. We didn't see the local pod but we heard they are followed by local researchers who have strategically placed hydrophones in the area and listen to all the marine sounds. Just recently they heard humpbacks singing - a research first as they were previously only thought to sing in the breeding grounds off Hawaii and Mexico. We also got to see humpbacks breaching, one in front of the boat and others in the distance, and hauled out stellar sea lions - massive and related to bears. This was more apparent when, on our return, we visited the excellent museum on the harbour side and saw their skeleton.
The trip was the windiest of the season and they didn't go out in the afternoon but we were so pleased they went out as we saw '5 star'whales and finally got to see the orcas that eluded us when we went to Norway a few years ago!
Back in port we went to the Orca cafe for lunch - there was only a limited menu as BC power had cut the power until 3pm but that didn't stop us having welcome hot soup and sharing a calorie laden yummy caramel tart.
We decided to go to Port McNeil to look around - it was about 10kms away- we walked to the harbour - it was literally blowing a gale albeit the wind was warm - flags were straining on the flag poles and the sea was awash with white caps. We walked around a very ordinary and functional town partook of tea at a local cafe and headed back to Hidden Cove to contemplate tomorrow's whale watching trip - we hoped the wind died down so we could go out on Seasmoke - a sailing boat. Back at the lodge we spotted bald eagle in the trees and black tailed dear grazing on the lawn - no black bears this evening.