J Pod all day off San Juan Islands!!! May 17th, 2008.

J26 captured in the light from the setting sun!

Victoria inner harbor with the full moon overhead.

The moon above one of the 3 cruise ships in the inner harbor.

Tail Slap

A female breaches near our boat! An Orca is travelling at almost 25mph in order to breach and can reach this speed with just a couple of thrust from its tail.

Cartwheel

J26 with Supercat and Lime Kiln Lighthouse in the background.

The pictures above show our passengers having a "Whale of a Time" during our 3 trips with Jpod today!

J1, from this view it is clear why he got the name "Ruffles":) He is probably the most photographed Orca in the wild.

J26 "Blackberry"

Great Blue Heron at Undersea Gardens in Victoria harbor.

Above, J27 "Mike"

J16 "Slick with her daughter J42 who is now 1 year old.

We had passengers on board to day from as far away as Venezuela and Texas and everyone was thrilled with the experience watching Jpod.

Here are some incredible pictures from todays tours with JPod. Our boats were one of the first on scene with JPod this morning and one of the last on scene this evening. All four of our trips today enjoyed a magnificent encounters with Ruffles and the rest of JPod:)

We had just left the inner Harbor this morning when the first reports came through that Jpod had been sighted just south of Lime Kiln Whale Park on the west coast of the San Juan Islands. It did not take long for us to arrive on scene and soon identified J1 "Ruffles", the large male in Jpod who is believed to have been born in 1951! We also spotted J16 "Slick" with her 1 year old daughter J42, plus her brother J27 "Mike".

During our afternoon and evening tours we continued to observe Jpod as they slowly made their way north. We got to see some spyhops, tailslaps, pectoral slaps and even a couple of breaches not far from our boat (just over 150 yards away), which made all our passengers and crew scream with delight:)

We were almost the last boat on scene this evening and on our way home we were treated to another stunning sunset. Today was one of those special days that make you grateful to be alive and able to enjoy the wonders of the Salish Sea!