Whale watching

[stoph]

I'm going for a visit to Seattle in July and want to take a whale watching excursion. Has anyone been to this area and gone on that kind of trip? If so, are you really close to the whales or are they farther out.

[eddarr]

We went a few years ago. There are several pods of killer whales that travel up and down the sound. The restrictions are very strict about where the tour boats have to turn off their motors. I think it is within 100 yards of a visible whale. Depending on the winds etc you may end up floating in very close to the whales or maybe not. We did end up about 20' from several and it was worth the entire trip.

Bring something long and fast. If it's overcast you will need a pretty fast shutter speed to stop the whale motion and the boat motion. You will also probably see some dolphins.

This is about the best picture I got with an old P&S.