We decided to leave Shearwater this morning at 7am for the 50nm cruise down to Fury Cove. Conditions still foggy, but not AS foggy.
As we were about to turn east into Lama Passage, I noticed a big circle of what maybe was bait fish, but it looked different than the usual surface disturbance from the fish…and sure enough, pretty soon a big humpback mouth came up right in the middle of it. One whale was solo bubblenet feeding near Walker Island.
I was able to identify it by its tail fluke on Happy Whale, CRC-18291, sex unknown, first sighting in BC in September 2015:
Then right after we turned south at Kaiete Point, at the northwest corner of Pointer Island, we saw several humpbacks bubblenet feeding, so we stopped to watch for a while. Still foggy, but the water was calm enough we could see the bubble ring before the whale mouths came up through it, which is very helpful when trying to aim for photos!
There were three whales, and I was able to get IDs on two of them, but the third one has no record, so possibly a calf. One of them has an ID number, but no previous sightings listed. Interesting!
This one is CRC-18154, sex unknown, first spotted in BC in September 2015:
This is the one (below) with an ID number in Happy Whale but no listed sightings: HW-MN0442653, sex unknown.
Bubblenet ring forming at the surface:
Another shot of a bubblenet ring:
This is the one I couldn’t ID…maybe a calf. I submitted the photos to Happy Whale so we’ll see if anything comes back!
Kevin took some video of the whales while we were stopped:
Such fun! We saw a few more whales on our way down Fitz Hugh Sound, too…busy out here today!
We anchored in Fury Cove, Russ and Kevin went out to see about some fish (chances were pretty good based on the twenty or so charter fishing boats we saw just north of here), and I cooked and picked the crab we caught yesterday for tonight’s dinner, and defrosted the ice maker (productive!).
The fog cleared and we now can see out from the anchorage into Fitz Hugh Sound. The tide is pretty high, so the white sand and shell beaches are a little skinny:
Tonight’s dinner:
We’re planning to stay two nights here…conditions look great for Cape Caution on Saturday, so another day of fishing tomorrow before starting to make serious miles towards home.