Our Day Kayaking with Killer Whales

Here's a quick summary of our day kayaking with the killer whales.

10:30 am - Get picked up in a van by a very hot tour guide. (We made the right decision to do this.)
11:30 am - Start to unpack our kayaks and equipment on a beach on the other side of the island. We see about 5 orcas whiz on by, going at about 10 knots.
12 noon - Get into the water to chase the orcas and meet up with them in their feeding grounds.
5:00pm - No Orcas
8:00pm - Have beers with hot tour guide.

Did I mention that our guide was hot? This is very important because it helped us get through the kayak tour. We never made it to the Orcas. It was very disappointing. The winds were up and it was quite choppy, despite the fact that Jo and I were totally cruisin' in the kayak. We were such a team. Clearly the best out of the other 10 people. There was one couple from Seattle that basically didn't know what the heck they were doing and we had to turn back for a while. I seriously wanted to use my Boston attitude and yell, "Did you NOT read the manual? You have to PADDLE! Get it together!" After 3 hours in the choppy waters, we did see a bald eagle and some seals, but alas, no Orcas. (Sigh.) We felt a little better to hear that the other tour groups who went past us (and who didn't have slackers in kayaks) didn't see Orcas, either. Basically, it was really bad luck. The chances of NOT seeing an orca were pretty slim. Grrr...

Jo and I made the best of it and re-ennacted scenes from Hawaii Five-O and Duran Duran Rio videos. WE WERE AWESOME. So awesome, we got the hot guide's phone number to meet us out later in the night...which he did. Yeah, we still got it. This ended up being a GREAT day!

We leave the island in a few hours and head to Vancouver. Before doing that, Jo and I are going to try one more time to see the Orcas. We're driving to Lime Kiln Point on the other side of the island. Dan (hot guide's name) told us he'd let us know when he sees the Orcas come by, so we can catch a glimpse.

One other success: upon landing back on shore, we observed the very rare Land Orca. Notice it's distinct black and white markings and passive nature. It has easily adapted to it's surroundings.

We look good, even on land.


Setting off!


Jo, Dan, Me


The aloof Land Orca