[6/24 5:30 SL]
It's Pirate Days here in the San Juans! Folks stroll around town, flaunting their best pirate attire, skull-and-crossbone flags decorate our marina railings, there are concerts abound, and even two historic tall ships are available for sailing trips! It's been a weekend full of excitement and surprise, since it's the 1st annual festival that San Juan Island has hosted. What we didn't expect when heading out on our 5:30 whale watch was having the opportunity to witness a mock battle between the two tallships, the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Cheifton! As we motored pasts these two beautiful ships facing each other port-to-starbord, we were surprised by the sudden sound of canonfire! People aboard both ships cheered as the smoke cleared and ships went about their beautiful sunset sail, and we waved as we continued motoring north into Canadian waters.
to learn more : Pirate Festival and Tall Ships
We continued our journey north in search of a large group of orcas traveling along the northern shores of Galliano Island. After we arrived in the Strait of Georgia, with the British Columbia Cascades stretching in front of us, we were greeted by a group of 10 whales moving quickly towards us. We oriented our boat alongside them, lining up parallel to their path of travel. We soon realized that we had two family groups present. One larger family, the T46B's, were in tight formation consistently surfacing off our left hand side. The second family group, the T101's, is a group of four consisting of one mom and her three massive adult sons, were more spread out, flanking the larger group and our boat on both sides. Mom and her oldest son were a little ways off our right hand side, but her two younger sons were far off our left hand side.
We continued our path of travel, watching these animals take several deep breaths at the surface before going down for a longer dive lasting a few mintues. Suddenly, we heard blows right next to our boat. The two younger T101's, were right alongside us, close enough to see the water cascading off their dorasal fins!
With two remarkably close surfacings from two large males, we started heading back to Friday Harbor. When we arrived back in the harbor, the two tallships were already docked at the Port of Friday Harbor Marina docks, showing off their massive masts in the sunset glow. We walked off the boat just after 9pm with happy hearts and still 15 minutes of daylight before us!
