Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 04/24/2021 |1:00pm
What a wonderful day!
As our wonderful guests hopped on our boat, Captain Pete and I headed out of Friday Harbor and south down the San Juan Channel. We boated until we reached the Southern point of San Juan Island where there was a gorgeous lighthouse called Cattle Point Lighthouse!
Around this area, there were huge rocks jutting out of the water that were completely covered with Sea Lions! These huge animals barked at each other, splashed in the water, and showed off their impressive size to our excited guests.
We then continued towards Long Island where we watched a huge bald eagle hop between rocks and fly towards his nest. The nest was massive! Such creations continue to be built throughout the eagle’s life and can reach upwards of 2,000 pounds!
We kept on boating and approached the southern shoreline of Lopez Island. Here, we boated around the sea until we came upon a gray whale!! The guests were thrilled when we spotted the first blow. We approached closer and saw its beautiful, mottled gray back as it surfaced and dove down to feed. He even showed us his tail a few times!
Then, out of nowhere, the gray whale burst through the water right next to our boat!! Just a few feet away! Pete shut off the engine immediately. Everyone on board was giddy with excitement as we watched the whale swimming just below the surface and do circles next to our boat! It surfaced, and its breath sounded so explosive before it took a dive and showed us an up close view his tail as he swam away.
We were all so thrilled. What a lucky encounter! Who knows why the whale chose to come visit us but maybe he was just curious!
We had such a great group of people on board, so I don’t blame the whale for coming to say hi!
We then circumnavigated Lopez Island and headed back home.
What a fantastic encounter.