Luckily, we did not have to look too far today, although the orcas were being a bit cagey. Capt. Craig took us out of Friday Harbor at an exaggeratedly slow speed, because the Coast Guard had sent out a radio warning about a submerged house boat that was adrift in San Juan Channel. How something can be submerged and adrift I do not know, but we were on the lookout for it. That was just the distraction that we needed though. We were nearly to Turn Island and we had not gotten up to speed yet when the announcement was made that there were orcas on the west side of San Juan Island at Lime Kiln Point State Park. Wow, what a save; Jaclyn and I took it as an opportunity to run around the boat yelling for joy. Up until that point we were destined for the south end of the island to look for a whale of questionable lineage that was going down on 20 minute dives.
A quick u-turn got us headed in the right direction though, and away we went. As we looped over the top of San Juan Island and motored through the glass-like waters of Haro Strait past Henry Island, I noticed a disturbance in the water well off of our port side. I minute of looking with the binoculars and I spotted a lone orca quickly swimming in the opposite direction to us and unnoticed by any of the other whale watch boats. Capt. Craig once again initiated a slick u-turn and we played catch-up and watched as what turned out to be two orcas with a group of four more behind cruised between us and Henry Island.
With no other boats in our immediate vicinity, we had found the leaders in this orcas experience and we were perfectly situated to watch them all swim by, group after group. J1 "Ruffles", J2 "Granny", K42 "Kelp", K14 "Lea", K11 "Georgia", K26 "Lobo", J27 "Blackberry" and many more. There was baby breaching, adult breaching, tail and pectoral fin slapping and two huge cartwheels just as we left the area. The orcas were absolutely beautiful and our guests had a wonderful time on the water.
So, from all of us at San Juan Safaris, to all of you who love the black-and-whites, thank you and we will...
See You In The Islands!
~Tristen, Naturalist
Orca Whales and Wildlife Are Our Only Business. ©
San Juan Island near Seattle: Home to the Southern Resident Killer Whales
