T49As at Boiling Reef

May 4, 2019 – Nice winds to get us started with a fast sail tacking back and forth up San Juan Channel. We had news of Biggs/transient killer whales known as the T49A’s feeding near Clements Reef / Sucia Island. We changed course to hug the shoreline of Orcas Island heading up Presidents Channel passing harbor porpoise and bald eagles along the way.

We were moving swiftly with the current in our favor, but the orcas were quite a bit ahead of us. We arrived on the scene and found an awesome raging current, hundreds of Bonaparte’s gulls calling and flying about, and mother T49A with offspring T49A3, T49A4 and T49A5 who popped up beside us. Her oldest son, T49A1, was off in distance traveling alone, while T49A2 possibly dispersed again as he/she wasn’t there that we know of.

We hung out with the orcas for as long as we could before circling Tumbo Island and its honeycomb sandstone coastline. Boiling Reef was teaming with wildlife… seals, sea lions, harlequin ducks, surf scoters, gulls. And nearby a pair of Peregrine Falcons surprised us with their fly by and vocals as we were sailing by.

We rounded out our time in Canada with a stop at Java Rocks before crossing the border to cut through New Channel for our dinner. Bald eagles perched above their nest and black oyster catchers greeted one another on the barnacled rocks. As amazing as this day was… the best part was celebrating two birthdays with two cakes. As we always say, “every trip is different!”.