Jordan | July 18, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip
Today was a lovely day! Even though the day started out with a gray, cloud covered sky with a brisk breeze in the air, by mid-trip, the clouds parted and blue skies lit up our morning.
Captain Gabe and I heard of whales on the west side of San Juan! So, excited to start the day, we booked it out of Friday Harbor and headed south through the San Juan Channel. We passed by southern point of San Juan, Cattle Point, and headed up the west side of the island. Battling a few waves, we reached Lime Kiln lighthouse and found our orca whales!
In fact, these were our Southern Resident killer whales. It was so nice to see them! I count any chance to see our Residents as a lucky day. We watched them swimming really close to shore and I could just imagine the excitement from the people watching on land!
Eventually as we headed north, the whales grew closer and we could really appreciate the beauty and grace of these intelligent animals. We witnessed a few moments of joyous splashing and tail slapping amongst the whales until eventually we decided to pursue other whales!
We headed out into Middle Bank where we found humpback whales! In fact, they were a cow/calf pair! (Aka a mother and her baby!) It was so great to watch them, especially because they seemed really inclined to swim close to our boat! We could even see their tiny dorsal fins wobbling in the wind.
Eventually we had to head back to harbor but seeing two types of whales in one day is always a fantastic trip!