Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 08/05/19 | 5:30pm
What a gorgeous day out on the water! Captain Gabe and I started our journey out of Friday Harbor and headed north through the San Juan Channel. We continued up towards Canadian waters as we passed through President’s Channel in between Orcas Island and Waldron Island. We boated up around East Point, off of Saturna Island in Canada and further into the Strait of Georgia.
The waters were perfectly still as we spotted our first blow off in the distance! It was a humpback whale! Everyone gasped as we saw the giant 15 foot wide tail emerge from the water before it dove down for a deep dive. It was so cute; the kids and even some adults were all counting the minutes before the whale surfaced again!
The humpback whale kept surfacing in random spots all over the sea, so it was sometimes like a “where’s waldo?” as we looked around for his next blow. It seemed as if he was making large circles within the strait. Perhaps he was feeding under the water and found a particularly good feeding spot!
It was amazing to watch this massive whale surface and breath and dive gracefully throughout the glassy waters. The sun sparkled off his blubbery back as Mount Baker stood beautifully in the background and made the whole scene look like a painting!
With a few great tail sightings, we were able to identify the whale as “Raptor.” His tail was mostly black with a little patch of white mostly on the right side. So cool! He also had tons of barnacles on his tail as well!
Eventually, we headed back to the harbor. Along the way, we saw the most amazing sunset! It was literally a rainbow, lighting up the entire sky with beauty.
What a lovely day.