No orcas present. The strong NW wind that was rolling through Hallowe'en was still pretty heavy in the morning. When still in bed (Paul downstairs making coffee) and taking a look around on the OrcaLab camera on the Laptop and while following two engaged humpbacks pushing through the waves, I noticed orca heading north by the Parson Island Light. The usual scramble followed. To the Lab, get the scope out, start a recording, set the camera on the right spot, get the still camera trained on the Pass. Then a really, really long dive. Eventually, they came up and were spread out. The closest ones disappeared on a long dive again but the male (s) remained in view on the very far side. They seemed to get stuck and interested in something over by the Compton shore. This went on for a while (more long dives) until they all regrouped and moved south through the Pass. Conditions were still not great, misty, dull grey, choppy waters, whales on the far side but we managed to keep pace with them and snap a few pictures. But sigh we lost them on yet another long dive when they were off the entrance to Blackney Pass. Kept up the search for a while. There were no calls to offer clues. While searching came across a few amazing humpbacks surfacing beneath flocks of birds on "bait balls". Finally given up went off to do other things. Later in the afternoon, around 2pm, Jared Towers most likely the same group, the T055s and T060s go past Alert Bay. Well that was convenient! On the humpback front, Ripple and Hunter have been around as well as Clover. Helena 01 Nov 2017 20:29:28 PST