We don’t see Orcas (Killer whales) very often but this July started off with a bang. Two days ago we came across a pod of Orcas who entertained us with their active behaviour – breaching, lob tailing, spy hopping.
Today we didn’t even have to leave the dock to see them. As our guests were boarding three Orcas swam right past our boat!!
This week’s rainy conditions hardly slowed us down. We had some great trips with fabulous wildlife sightings.
Although it seems as if Black bears do not like the rain much, they do have to come out to look for food ….. like this soggy bear who roamed the pebbly beach in Ucluelet Inlet the last two days. This Bald Eagle didn’t look all that pleased about being wet either. Luckily the guests aboard our boat looked a lot happier!
We are now open for the season and have done a few trips. We have been seeing lots of creatures: A bigger California sea lion colony than we have seen in years, there are some Gray whales and the odd Humpback around. A sea otter is hanging around the mouth of the harbor, we’ve seen a momma bear with her cub and at this time of year we always see lots of eagles, Steller sea lions and seals. It feels great to be cruisin’ in the Broken Group again!
We finally made it back to Ucluelet after having been delayed by a repair that took longer than expected. We are happy to be home and hope to be ready to start our season in a few days.
What a relief! The Raincoast Maiden is back in the water after 4 LONG WEEKS of sitting on blocks in a parking lot. The reason for being out of the water for such an extended period is a repair that went “sideways” when a courier lost an essential part of machinery which then had to be manufactured! So if you are the person who had an extra parcel delivered to you, enjoy the coupling to our port shaft as we no longer need it!
Each spring our boat gets lifted out of the water and put in a parking lot. It is our one chance a year to do work that is difficult or impossible to do while the boat is in the water. This Easter weekend we made use of the warm, sunny weather to wax and polish the hull. We even got a head start on this year’s summer tan!
After a few days of blustery conditions the sea finally calmed down enough for us to take the Raincoast Maiden down the West Coast of Vancouver Island to Sidney, near Victoria. We got here two days ago and are excited to have started working on getting the boat ready for the upcoming season. The Raincoast Maiden may be a pretty lady but she does demand a fair dose of TLC to keep her looking good – which is exactly what we’ll be up to in the next few weeks!
We are now closed for the season. 2012 was a great year for weather and wildlife sightings. We would like to thank everyone came out with us and also those of you who sent business our way. We are already looking forward to next year’s season which will start in May 2013.
Although it is late in the season, we have been seeing lots of whales on our tours in October. Once day this week we saw 14 – including this active humpback!!
