It started raining at exactly 1:00. We slogged out of the harbor under a giant black cloud that seemed to cover only San Juan Island. The farther away we got, the more sun we saw. Finally, headed southeast over the top of Lopez Island and down the east side, we moved out from under the cloud and into the sunshine. Guess who was waiting for us in the sunshine? Orcas. Resident orcas. Lots of them. We found them in Rosario Straight. They were spread from the near side of the channel all the way across toward Whidbey Island. It was tricky to get a good ID as they weren't coming up too far out of the water, but our best guess from the partial saddles that we got was at least some of J pod with a possible few K's and maybe even an L or two mixed in. Shortly after our arrival there was a bit of splashing and we did get to see a little guy breach a couple of times off in the distance. There was one tight group that stuck together the whole time we were there that included one big male and a couple of ladies as well as a juvenile and a calf. All in all it was a pretty spectacular day on the water. We ended up circumnavigating Lopez and saw a few porpoises and bald eagles galore on the way home.
Laura, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris