We started our first trip of the morning aboard the Western Explorer with high hopes.  I had actually found whales earlier this morning from shore out on the west side of San Juan Island.  They were slowly heading north towards the Center for Whale Research, and didn’t seem to be in any hurry.  We were able to join up with members of J Pod, the L2’s and the L12’s just as they approached the Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart Island.  It was so beautiful.  The whales were coming to the surface in groups of 6-8, and we were able to ID many members of J-Pod including J1 Ruffles, J2 Granny, J26 Mike, and J27 Blackberry.  Soon we also saw L41 Mega, L78 Gaia, and many other L-Pod females.  There were several times when the whale groups would come together, and during these times, we’d see lots of upside-down swimming, tail lobs, tail slaps.  It was amazing.  We watched seals and bald eagles on the way home, and even checked on a bald eagle chick (he was keeping a low profile, but we did see an adult).

For the afternoon trip aboard the Western Explorer, we were having to play “catch up” with the whales.  Apparently, once we left them in the morning, they decided to speed up, and we didn’t see whales until we headed way up into Canadian waters.  Frequently, the whales will use a passage between islands called Active Pass (aptly named from all the ferry and boat traffic that use it as a shortcut between Victoria & Vancouver, BC).  They must have made a speedy trip through as we didn’t catch up to the whales until they were approaching an area known as the Coal Docks.  But we were certainly glad to have made the trip.  There were hardly any boats on scene, and the whales were seemingly content to actively forage in multiple directions at once.  I had just finished explaining some of the whale behaviors we’d hope to see when they started “porpoising” or speed swimming about 300 yards in front of  the boat.  This was followed by multiple breaches, spyhops, and plenty more rolling around on each other.  It was so cool to see how the orcas react to this area as it has a lot more fresh water in it as a result of the outflow from the Fraser River.  The kids onboard were thrilled to see the orcas breaching–one whale must have breached at least 6-7 times in a row.  On the way home, we managed to search for seals, porpoises, and bald eagles.  This is the season we live for on the island—sunny, clear skies yet still very comfortable temperatures (of course it helps when you are out on the water where it is typically 15˚cooler than on land!)