Hanson Island to Nigeil Island

We knew today would be a big move day - we were moving the ship from Hanson Island to the top of the Vancouver Island.  We knew the Queen Charlotte Straight was a grate place to see whales and we were treated early.  Getting out of Hanson island we came upon a large pod of 30+ Orca's.

The whales were staying mostly on the surface, breathing every 30 seconds or so.  One particularly curious whale came up to our boat and gave us a good looking over.  With a push of its powerful tail the whale dove underneath the boat and surfaced on the other side.

The Pod was going south (roughly toward Robson Bight) we were going North so we spit ways.    As we passed Malcome Island we saw a few single orca's with different behaviour than the pod we saw earlier - they were diving for about three minutes and then surfacing with for two breaths and then diving again.

We continued driving North West when we noticed another visitor - a Coast Guard Zodiak!  The Coast Guard had picked up a faint distress call in our general direction and stopped to ask us if we had either seen the boat or heard more of the distress call.  Unfortunately we didn't see or hear the distress call so the Zodiak continued in it's search.

As we continued North West we passed a floating city - Carnival's Spirit.  This massive ship can carry 2,124 passengers - many more than the 12 passengers on the curve of time.  Most amazing - they have a water slide a luxury not available on the curve.  Of course their chance of seeing whales is pretty close to 0.

We continued north - and passed Scarlett Point Lighthouse.  This light house is still manned.  It seems this light house was a gateway into the wilder part of the BC coast line.

We were generally looking for Sea Otters.  Sea otters are unfortunately pretty rare but Jan had heard that a group had migrated down to Hope island.  We figured that Shadwell passage (between Hope Island and Vansittart Island) would be a sheltered location for sea otters to call home.  We went out for a paddle to look for their little brown heads floating in the kelp.

Ruth Brought us back some samples!   She brought up a large piece of Giant Kelp (Giant Perennial Kelp) that had two snails on it - a Purple Ring Top Snail and a Black Turban (Black Tegula).  She also managed to find a number of shells - Purple Sea Urchin Shell, a Japanese (Northern) Abalone shell and Plate Limpet shell.  What's amazing about these samples is how long lived these animals (except the Urchin) can be - over 80 years each!

We moved the boat to protected harbour on Nigei Island and anchored for the night and prepared for our early departure the next morning.