An adventurous day off San Juan Island, with whales!!

A rainy thunderstorm loomed over the horizon....whales were moving off the south side of San Juan Island....do we brave it and go out?! Yes! With a slight rain delay, we left the dock just a few minutes behind our normal schedule. Everyone was a little hesitant about the weather...but then again, it's the Pacific Northwest and you never know what to expect with Mother Nature. Despite the chill in the air, everyone was very excited about the prospect of seeing Killer Whales (or Orcas) in the wild!! Off we went to the south end of the island where the whales were last seen heading offshore...along the way we had quite the adventure experiencing a quick downpour, where 2 guests braved it on our foredeck at the front, protected by some of our extra blankets! Then we moved through Cattle Pass, where the incoming tides, made quite a few currents, whirlpools, and waves as water rushed in through this bottleneck waterway between Lopez Island and San Juan Island.

Just past the islands, heading southwest we spot our first dorsal fins!! We get a few great looks of some members of J-Pod, one of our local resident pods of Orcas. After spending some 20 minutes getting some great looks, we are surprised a small subpod of whales nearby! J-16 (Slick) and her 1 year old baby, J-42 and 2 others, who we think were the older siblings, J-33 and J-36. The baby sure was excited today or so it seemed, because she wouldn't stop breaching!! After seeing them swim off, with a few more breaches, we turned back towards home. But not before seeing a little bit more of our local wildlife! Three bald eagles, (1 was a juvenile) nearby a nest, harbor seals swimming, nesting cormorants, gulls, and a rare sighting of a sea lion! A great day for wildlife viewing, and as we made our way back to Friday Harbor, there was one more treat in store...blue skies and sunshine!!

-jaclyn, naturalist