It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and even better, Jpod had just came in yesterday after a few days of being gone. Captain Pete, naturalist Rachel and I️ were really excited to get out on the water although a very chilly day for August and a bit rainy. As we left Friday harbor, there were reports of the orca on the west side moving up the San Juan coast, so we decided to round the northern tip of the island and head south to encounter them.
Headed up the San Juan Channel we were nervous to see Jpod after a hard couple of days involving news reports all over the world about a dead calf being carried around by a grieving mom from this pod. On the way to them, many people were curious and asking questions about what they could do to help this population.
As we rounded the northern tip of San Juan island into Spieden channel, we could already feel the weather reaching us. We were getting more wind and a bit of rain since we were entering less sheltered waters. Now heading down the Haro Strait towards Kellet Bluff, we were closer to where the whales were spotted last. With all of our eyes on the water, we spotted some spouts in the distance right before reaching Kellet bluff. There were also more spouts coming from the north and from the east by Open bay. This was Jpod indeed!! We watched a group forage right by the cliffs first heading north but after a while continuously changing directions. North to south, south to north always sticking by the coast.
We watched the whales for quite a while and were even able to see some spy-hopping and breaching! At one point, there was some many orca by us, we weren’t sure what direction to go in order to get out of their way!! One of our last and favorite looks at these guys, was seeing J38 (a sprouting male) and barely being able to recognize him from how big he’s gotten!
Ready to head back home and as the whales also seemed to be headed back south, we again rounded the north of San Juan island and continued home down the San Juan Channel just in time for the weather to clear up! But that wasn’t all, on the way home, we were able to rescue some boaters that had their motor die on them! What an exciting afternoon!
Mariana, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris