Montague Harbor to Nanaimo

This morning we had a short run from Montague Harbor to Nanaimo, but needed to time our departure so the we could hit slack water at Dodd Narrows at 10 AM. Unfortunately, yours truly made a bit of a navigational planning error that had us depart an hour earlier than necessary. I made up for it by preparing a nice breakfast for us to enjoy as we moved up Trincomali Channel at a leisurely 6 knots. We had a nice surprise, sighting a pod of Orcas just inside Porlier Pass.

Orcas feeding near Porlier Pass, captured with Gwen’s new fancy telephoto lens.

At first we were not even sure they were Orcas – we were seeing juveniles and thought they might be Dall’s Porpoises. But then the adults surfaced. We were very close, so stopped the boat, turned off the depth sounder and waited for them to move on. Gwen got lots of pictures. We transited Dodd Narrows about 20 minutes before slack with no difficulty and arrived at Nanaimo around 10:30 AM. We went to the Thrifty Foods and BC Liquor store for provisions and then took the ferry over to Protection Island for lunch at the Dinghy Dock pub. A nap and a walk rounded out the day. Tomorrow we are heading up the Strait of Georgia to the Campbell River area.