It was a treat to awake on our first morning aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion to a clear blue sky and sunshine. We sailed the San Juan Islands through the night and docked in Nanaimo to pass through customs shortly after breakfast-hello, Canada! It was nice to stretch our legs in the warm weather walking the Nanaimo dock, some guests even spotted otters.
As the ship was under way late morning/early afternoon, we were busy engaging in photo talks and workshops with onboard National Geographic photographer, Krista Rossow, and the rest of the photo team. With many incredible cultural experiences and various wildlife encounters to come in the next two weeks, we were happy to learn as many photography tips and tricks as possible.
The weather was so nice (t-shirt weather!) that we spent the rest of the afternoon on the bow and decks getting to know one another and looking for wildlife. Today must’ve been our lucky day because we spotted a pod of transient killer whales while cruising through the Georgia Strait! The National Geographic Sea Lion lingered for close to an hour watching these beautiful animals surface and breach. Killer whales, Orcinus orca, are the largest known members of the dolphin family. Males can reach a length of up to 3Oft while females can reach up to 26ft. We were able to differentiate the males from the females by the dorsal fin sizes; the male dorsal fin is proportionately much larger than the female dorsal fin. One specific male in the pod we saw today was at the top of his size range and we estimated his dorsal fin to be 6 feet tall! The birders of the group were excited to also see a variety of bird species including: turkey vultures, gulls, osprey, and pigeon gullemots.
As we continued to sail north through the evening, we all fell asleep with high hopes and expectations for tomorrow after such a fabulous day today!
