After a foggy start where the ferry used its fog horn every few minutes, the day turned gloriously sunny as we were approaching Vancouver Island.  We saw so much marine wildlife after it cleared!

Today, I saw 3 Orca, 11 Humpback Whales,  27 Sea Otters, 2 small pods of either Dall’s Porpoises or Pacific White-sided Dolphins, and 2 small pods of Harbour Porpoises.    We also saw a huge pod of around 30 energetic Pacific White-sided Dolphins -more details on that exciting event below. There were several unidentifiable marine mammals spouting or breaking the surface throughout the day as well.

The large group of Pacific White-sided Dolphins were playing in the wake of an approaching boat.  Some broke away to play with the ferry. They would occasionally leap completely out of the water and were quite close. 

While the ferry doesn’t seek wildlife and only rarely announces wildlife sightings,  it is set up beautifully for motivated passengers to find wildlife.

We usually sit in the first or second row of the forward viewing lounge, and C and I have a competition who can see the most mammals out of the huge windows.

Occasionally we run outside to get a better side or rear view from one of the decks that is open to passengers.  It was so nice outside today that a number of people were just hanging out on the sunny side deck, but it wasn’t crowded.

Tomorrow we arrive in Bellingham at 7 am Alaska time (the ferry always operates in Alaska time).  After unloading the truck, we begin our 3100-mile drive east across the Lower 48.  We plan to go fairly direct,  but take it in reasonable chunks and enjoy some sights on the way.  The tentative plan is 9 to 10 days to get home to Virginia,  with a short day tomorrow as disembarking and running errands will take some time.