Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 17th, 2024 | 12:30 pm
Our Classic Whale Watch felt like Fall as we left Friday Harbor in overcast and cooler weather, but that certainly didn’t deter us from having a great day on the water! We left the dock and headed north, following up on a report of some killer whales. We traveled up San Juan Channel, following the western side of Orcas Island heading towards Patos Island. After a look at Patos Lighthouse, we rounded the corner and saw a few other whale watching boats ahead of us. As we began searching the shorelines and surrounding area, we suddenly saw two dorsal fins rise above the water. We knew from the reports that these were two males, though one was much larger (and older) than the other. The larger of the two was well known lone male T049C Nielson, and the smaller was another well known male T065A5 Indy! While we do know the families of both of these whales, and see them frequently in the area, they are two of the males we see that prefer to travel alone. It was very exciting seeing these two travel together, especially since they are not related at all and are very different ages with Nielson at 26 years old and Indy only 14. We watched the pair zigzag around the area, generally heading northeast above Sucia Island. We got a few closer looks at them as they moved through the area, but our last looks were our best when they suddenly turned right for our boat! They surfaced quite close to us on our port side and then swam underneath us to surface again right off our starboard side. With our engines off, we could hear their beautiful exhalations and got to see much more of their size difference and the unique markings on their dorsal fins. These close looks left us in awe as we watched them continue to swim north, and was the perfect ending for our encounter.
On our way back to the south, we stopped at a small island off of Sucia that had many Harbor Seals and Stellar’s Sea Lions! This was a great way to see the differences between the two species, particularly in size and ability to move on land. We listened to the sea lions growl at each other and soon enough continued our travels back towards San Juan Island. We had a great cruise back to Friday Harbor, ending another fantastic day on the water with some of our favorite whales.
Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips on M/V Osprey at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.