Any time you're thinking about getting on a boat, check the sky and then cross your fingers. Today we had intermittent sunshine over Friday Harbor and dark gray low-hanging clouds to the south. And to the south we went... with fingers crossed that the clouds would continue out to sea and away from our projected travels.
Just before leaving the protection of the islands, we saw a handful of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks exchanging 48 degree Celsius water for slightly warmer air temperatures. Out around the bend heading north along the west side of San Juan Island towards False Bay, we found the mother lode: orcas! Word through the vessel radio grapevine was that we had a mixture of J and K pods, with a possible identification of J30 ("Riptide"). One potential reason for resident pods to intermingle is to swap DNA and expand each pod's gene pool in hopes of creating viable and successful offspring; kind of important when you're an endangered species and on "THE LIST".
Leaving the whales to their continued intermingling and love trysts, we cruised back along the west side to find an empty Bald eagles' nest at Long Island. Further travels revealed two eagles nearby, one perched stoically on the rocks at the end of the same island and another one perched on the top of Whale Rock. On our last turn, we found on another rock island a tiny brown spotless harbor seal pup next to its silver and brown-spotted mother among another thirty-plus harbor seals; by this time, they were enjoying the warming effects of the clearing skies as the clouds abated.
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris