#2013-42 Cape Addington and the Jumping Orcas

On Thursday we're up early but take the time to demolish a leisurely breakfast of salmon and eggs. By 11 AM we are fishing off Cape Addington in hopes of a King, but the Cohos are all around and we land a few.

Cape Addington is quite calm on he eastern side.

Seal "king" of the Cape.

Marvin lands a Coho.

After a few hours of trolling around we moved a few miles northeast of the Cape and set the anchor for lunch.  We also baited up for halibut and dropped our lines while dining.  Vince has caught his share of fish but we all "felt the pain" when his halibut hook connected with an odd looking sea creature.

Hard to believe this came out of the
ocean.  We all "felt the pain" from
the halibut hook in this sea creature.
Maybe a little blue pill would help?

There are times when the Captain is allowed to fish.

After a busy day fishing for Kings but hooking up only with Cohos, we stowed the rods and decided to head back to town for a last minute grocery run.  The route takes us back through tiny Pigeon Pass just west of Pigeon Island.  The Pass shoals up to about 20 feet and narrows to 100 feet.  As we approached the Pass, an Orca pod of 11 whales suddenly appeared just in front of our bow.  We immediately idled the engine and prop. The tidal current was pushing us at two knots and it looked as though we would squish through the Pass at the same time as the Orcas.  Crew was scrambling for their cameras as the Orcas breathing was close aboard.  Vince started shooting photos and luckily Bob just had enough battery to video the jumping Orcas.  As Orcas and Wild Blue squeezed through the Pass, the pod was split into two groups.  The whale family did not like being separated, and the females and juveniles sped towards the big male Orca soon after we cleared.  They "flipped us off" as can be seen in the second video below.

Orca pod nears Pigeon Pass

Orca jumps as Vince misses the shot!