Humpbacks at Boiling Reef and Orcas T46B's near Friday Harbor

June 22, 2020 – We left Friday Harbor to drift in light winds close to shore and found a breeze at Point Caution to cross the channel on a beam reach. Tacking between the reefs of Shirt Tail and Low Island and harbor seals rested on rocks visible with the new moons low tide. We always enjoy the calls of the black oystercatchers patrolling their nesting sites on Low Island.

Wing on wing until winds dropped and onwards to Flattop Island National Wildlife Refuge. The end of the ebb was quite strong carrying us along the Southern shoreline to check on the the eagles nests and seal haul outs. The current carried us to New Channel and we watched Bald Eagles organizing their pecking order, perhaps with the placenta of a harbor seal on the rocks of the Cactus Islands. The young strands of this years kelp forest are home today to the harbor seals.

North through the pass of Ripple Island and the ancient grove of aspen trees into Boundary Pass. Harbor Porpoises seemed abundant popping up briefly while a couple logged motionless at the surface. We’d been listening for reports of Biggs Orcas Traveling South from Trincomali so we headed towards the border but hearing they were keeping to Canada we made haste on the flood to Boiling Reef to look for humpback whales. Distant but the photos suggest we were possibly seeing MMZ0004 “Zephyr” and another .The current was really boiling here today and we watched many bald eagles swoop down to catch fish. Two humpbacks appeared to be siimilarly busy fishing.

We followed the tide rips to Alden Point Lighthouse. A bald eagle chick was stretching their wings at a nest on Patos Island. We’d seen this chick as a peering tiny head back in April. Following Patos honeycombed sandstone shoreline down to Sucia and cutting out between Little Sucia helped us find counter currents and move on to Point Doughty and Presidents Channel. There was another chick peering out of his/her nest on the north side of Orcas Island watching us sail by. This is our third eaglet sighting this year.

We moved quickly down the old growth forested channel lit by the late afternoon sun as we picked up reports of orcas known as the T46B’s (minus T46B1’s) southbound toward Friday Harbor. They stopped to engage in hunting and the backlit blows and splashes of their pursuit were dramatic against the dark forested shoreline. 48 miles covered today and we picked up the orcas less than a mile from home as they neared Point Caution. It’s all about the journey, not just the destination.