Encounter Summary:

Gloomy day in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. California Transients were seen by Mark Malleson yesterday west of Race Rocks and Dave was keen to see them so he headed out on “Morningstar” with Tom and Jane who were also curious to see these “exotic” visitors that show up about this time of year. The weather was a bit unruly and rainy, so Ken remained at the dock in Port Angeles awaiting news of which way to go. From 1402 to 1452 Dave, Tom and Jane were off near Race Rocks with seven Transients (T46Bs and T46C2) and catching occasional glimpses of an elusive male on the sidelines that was allegedly the CA Transient in choppy seas. They left the Ts and headed west to encounter Residents that were reported inbound off Sooke (see Encounter 114). At 1530, the T46Bs were reported off Ediz Hook, so Ken launched in Chimo and had a brief encounter with them in a vain attempt to obtain decent ID photographs in the drizzle. By 1600 they were at Eastern Bank, and the next day they were in Puget Sound. Such is the life of these whales – always travelling somewhere.