After transiting overnight through Seymour Narrows and south along Vancouver Island, National Geographic Venture saw the sunrise midway down the Strait of Georgia. A beautiful and productive body of water, this area is part of the Salish Sea we have been learning about for the past few days. We slept in for a change and were treated to a fabulous brunch, complete with a mimosa or bloody mary. A few talks were presented, an illuminating discussion about smart-phone photography with the photo-team, and a discussion about environmental restoration of this area, from Katie Mills-Orcutt, our naturalist / expedition diver. Low and behold if we didn’t discover a loose group of perhaps a dozen humpback whales! Whales can communicate over vast distances, so while these animals don’t form pods, they certainly were in the same area together, exhibiting what looked like feeding behavior. A mother and calf pair approached the ship slowly, and after twenty minutes or so of the ship being clutched out of gear and drifting, the whale pair swam right next to us! Our afternoon saw us ashore at Wallace Island, one of the Gulf Islands of Canada’s portion of the Salish Sea. We went ashore in the sunshine for leg-stretching walks, interpretive ambles, and a few took to kayaks and Zodiacs for a sea-based tour. The day finished as usual with a fun and entertaining recap from the staff, a delicious dinner from the galley, and libations from the bartenders.