Today's adventure was to be Whale Watching - it meant an early start for Rosie, Bridget and me, but the weather was beautiful, and we were soon on board the powerful motor boat heading for the whale's favourite haunts. Even Bridget, never before a good sailor, enjoyed the ride.
However, we hadn't been out long when the bright sunshine gave way to banks of fog, though we were still charging along at 30 knots. After 45 minutes we stopped and listened in the hydrophone for whale activity - nothing. For some time we motored a while, stopped, listened. But no whales. In the end we had to give up looking for whales, and we turned towards land and went in near Adventure Island on the south eastern corner of Vancouver Island.
Even here, the mist was never far away.
We saw Harbour Seals basking on the rocks, together with kelp forests, jelly fish, a young bald eagle, cormorants, many gulls, but never the elusive whales.
So we headed back to Victoria, and sunshine (of course) though the banks of fog persisted for much of the day over the sea.
We were offered a complementary trip, but sadly had no opportunity to take it (and later heard that no whales were seen all day).
After lunch we visited the Royal British Columbia Museum - it was a bit of a rush as the museum closed promptly at 5, and we were advised to concentrate on the "people" displays, and missed much of the impressive natural history displays. And, to cap it all, Bridget lost her camera somewhere along the way.