Our two trips today took us out to the west side of San Juan Island.  This has been a week of morning fog and ferry delays….so it seems almost more special when we have such great whale watching expereinces after everyone has had some extra challenges in having everything fall into place.  This morning we went around the north end of the island and down Haro Strait.  There we found two K pod family whales cruising south.  Once we stopped to watch them we realized we had caught up with more whales!  They seemed to surround the boat in every direction….although the fog plays tricks with what direction is what direction!  We had a great experence with lots of foraging going on all around us.  Although we had some big waves and surprise spray as we came into Haro Strait, we found absolutely calm water where we stopped to watch the whales.

This afternoon’s trip lead us to the south end of the island as the whales had continued south.  However, when we found them they were once again headed…yes…north!  We had a group of seven or eight whales, with four adult males cruising in and around females.  There was one youngster that always had to put his /her two cents of tail slapping into the mix.  Once two of the males breached at the same time!  Yikes!  This group was very social this afternoon, with breaching, spy hopping, swimming together, rolling over each other….and who knows what else!

As we made our way back the fog had mostly lifted and we stopped at Whale Rocks to see a Steller sealion!  What a surprise! This bold fellow was proudly perched on the end of the rocks, head up to the sky….very photogenic. This is not a usual July sighting!   We also found Harbor seals at Shark Reef and a Great Blue Heron.

Once back in Friday Harbor, the sun was out and it was hard to believe we had piled on blankets and hats and gloves for the trip home!

~Nan