Our first sail with members from L pod this year

September 21, 2019 – It was a gorgeous September day and we were ready for an adventure. Set the sails and headed south out of Cattle Pass. Goose Island was busy with cormorants and gulls as we sailed through Cattle Pass.

We rounded the tip of San Juan Island and spotted a couple dorsal fins belonging to our Southern Resident orcas. It was K16 (born 1985) with her son K35 (born 2002) foraging off South Beach. We got to watch K35 chase down a salmon while his mom tail slapped nearby. At one point he stopped for a moment to take a look at us followed by a backwards flip. In the distance K14 (born 1977) and son K42 (born 2008) continued down island towards Salmon Bank. As we drifted we could hear blows of the orcas as they surfaced around us foraging for chinook salmon. We spotted a small playful group of orca heading south. It included some rare visitors to our area – the L54’s. We jokingly call them “the rogue whales” as they don’t often show up with L pod very frequently. They were socializing with the K12’s (minus K22 and K33). The boys are getting much bigger now – L108 was born 2006 and K37 was born 2003. Even K42 born 2008 looked like he’s sprouting! Speaking of big boys K21 (born 1986) was foraging off Pile Pt most of the day before moving off towards the south of us.

It was great spending time watching the orcas amidst a beautiful backdrop of the Olympic Mountains and Mt Baker. On our way back we stopped by Whale Rocks to watch the sea lions as they were winding down as the day came to a close. Harbor seals snoozed on Deadman Island as we came back through the Pass and back to Friday Harbor.

That evening around sunset the remaining L pod whales (minus L12’s who haven’t returned yet) who were foraging off Land Bank/Lime Kiln much of the day, went north and kept going. The next day some Southern Residents were found outside of Vancouver, and another group possibly K pod whales and maybe L54’s went west back towards the Ocean. Meanwhile, J pod and the K13’s plus L87 Onyx have been foraging down in Puget sound for about 6 days now.

Please Note: Photos taken with 400mm telephoto lens and fully cropped to show whale ID’s and detail