Jordan | July 19, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip
The cloudy morning and brisk breeze chilled our Kestrel vessel as we headed out of Friday Harbor. Because it was so early, there were no reports of whales around the San Juan islands. So, Captain Mike and I headed out blind to try and find the wildlife.
We headed north through the San Juan Channel, cut up across Boundary Pass and wandered into Canada. Then we cut above Patos Island and then down through Rosario Strait. We stopped a couple times and checked out some great piles of seals! These harbor seals were taking full advantage of the low tides and were spread all out amongst rocks close to the water. There were quite a few babies cuddled up against their mothers. They were so adorable!
After quite a decent tour of many San Juan islands, we finally received reports of whales up near Saturna island in Canada! So, we headed back up north off of East Point. Here we found Bigg’s (transient) killer whales! It was so nice to see them! The whales were swimming far apart which is an interesting behavior for transients, not typically seen amongst individuals in a pod. Normally transients will swim close together to remain quieter and stealthier for hunting purposes. We watched them cruise along the coast line and saw a couple breaches! Then we saw one spyhop as they reached the edge of the island, most likely surveying the islands and trying to decide where to go next!
At this point we knew we must go home so we headed back toward our own American island excited to have seen such great animals!