Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 07/18/19 | 3:00pm
What a great trip today! Captain Pete and I took the Kestrel and headed out to open seas to find the whales! We heard reports of the whales from our first trip travelling north so we set off in that direction.
We boated up through the San Juan Channel and up towards Waldron Island. Here we stopped at a little place called white rocks. We spotted so many harbor seals! These puppy dogs of the sea flopped around and tried to balance on tiny rocks. They were so cute!
We continued up north past Boundary Pass and up into the Strait of Georgia. Just off Point Roberts, we found our whales! There were so many whales! They were pretty spread apart as we noticed there were at least three pods travelling through these waters.
One pod travelled slowly as they were potentially resting or sleeping as they swam through the water. Another pod further away started to act more active as they searched the seas for any seals!
Then suddenly, there was some splashing and tails flew in the air, one whale lunged completely out of the water, they were definitely chasing after something! A few whales all came together, circling this one spot.
Soon after, we saw some spy hopping where their heads popped completely out of the water! So cool! We also saw some moon walking, swimming backwards as a clear indication of prey sharing!
There was so much activity today! We were lucky enough to watch the whale all around us exhibit these interesting behaviors. Then, suddenly we heard exhalations right in front of our boat! Captain Pete immediately shut off the engines and we sat in silence as we listened to the powerful breaths swim past our boat. Beautiful!
Eventually we headed back towards the islands and made it back to Friday Harbor. What a fantastic adventure!