J pod at Iceberg Point

May 6, 2019 – Today felt like our lucky day. After we began our sail we had news that J pod was coming down Rosario Strait. We turned right and headed down San Juan Channel passing the harbor seals basking on Shark Reef. A Harbor porpoise swam by in the strong current. A pair of bald eagles took off from Whale Rocks. And then something unusual happened today. The steller sea lions who were gathered on Whale Rocks suddenly appeared startled and darted off into the water in a hurry. And strangely the harbor seals all stayed put. We’ve never seen sea lions spook like this before; usually they are sleepy on the rocks or curiously looking at us as we sail by. It was definitely different and made us wonder about the current political situation facing pinnipeds.

We continued through the maze of islands off the Lopez coastline and spotted J19 and J16 in the lead, close to shore, by Iceberg Point. Close by was J16’s daughters, J36 and J42. J39 passed by with an impressive cartwheel and various tail slaps were happening as the whales paraded by us. A playful group consisting of J35 and son J47 and J41 with her son J51 socialized and breached repeatedly and suddenly they began high speed porpoising toward Salmon Bank. They kept porpoising at about 12knots and it was hard for us to keep up.

Eventually we found ourselves drifting in placid waters with a view of the Olympic Mountains listening to the orcas’ exhales around us. The J14s, some of the J11s and 17s, J38 and L87 went South of the others after rounding Colville Island. There was clearly some decision making going on and by the end of the day the whales were spread wide across the Straits of Juan de Fuca heading slowly West and out to the Pacific ocean.

It was hard to leave such an amazing place. We arrived at Long Island where we shared stories over supper – lingcod and veggies. Nobody was home in the eagle’s nest. As the sun began to set we sailed by the sea lions who appeared to be very calm unlike earlier. We had the most incredible view of Mt Rainer in the distance behind the sea lions as we came around Whale Rocks. And Mt Baker stood proud as we returned to Friday Harbor.