Fall is not the best time for viewing wildlife up here, and often at it's best Desolation Sound is not abundant with sea life but the last few days have had some.
From the dock at Homfray Lodge I was able to catch some bird life.
This Bonaparte Gull was almost too fast for me
these Mergansers were slightly more cooperative.
And then there was this guy who was downright posing
Our real surprise was yesterday morning when rounding the southern end of West Redonda Island we had a Blue Heron start to go I guess for a fish in the water in front of us when all of a sudden a Sea Lion came shooting up out of the water to get the Heron! Fortunately for the Heron the Sea Lion could only get half its length out of the water which was just not quite enough. This episode was way beyond any chance of catching on the camera.
We ended up staying in Refuge Cove again with limited service as after the 15th they are only around for three half days a week. We did get a great sunset though free of charge.
We had one more very impressive surprise this morning when we went to leave Refuge Cove in the early morning. At a low tide and just after we cleared the docks and were pulling fenders in, a pod of half a dozen Orcas decided to enter the cove and swim around the little island out in front. There was no getting away from them as there was little room in the entrance so we just cut the engine and watched them swim by.
Well that certainly made our day. And to think if we had been 10 minutes later leaving the dock we probably wouldn't have even noticed them out there.
Though we had originally planned on staying tonight at Lasqueti or Jedidiah Island, a front that wasn't supposed to kick winds until Monday was moving faster than anticipated so we decided to make the crossing of the Georgia Strait today. It was a good day for sailing.
Very nice!!
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