T46B's and T49A's and a sail around San Juan Island

June 23, 2020 – We left Friday Harbor with the knowledge of Transient/Biggs Orcas the T46B’s (minus T46B1’s) and T49A’s (minus T49A1 and T49A2) heading North from Hein Bank. The ebb current carried us quickly to Big Rock and down the Lopez shoreline. Crossing from Sharks Reef to Goose Island cormorant rookery we came out of Cattle Pass to head towards Eagle Point. We learned that the 2 orca families had split with the T49A’s heading up island close to shore while the T46B’s were offshore. We chose to tack towards the T46B’s hoping to visit Hein Bank where we’d also heard humpback reports.

As we approached the T46B’s they were in a tight group traveling North. We sailed parallel with the gorgeous view of the Olympic mountains as a backdrop. As the current turned to flood in some areas of the Strait we continued North viewing Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse.

We caught up with the T49A’s near Mitchel Bay and were excited to see they were taking Mosquito Pass. A first for us to see them come into Garrison and West Cott Bays and they were clearly engaged in hunting harbor seals. They continued into Roche Harbor where they began hunting again. We left them to ride the flood current at 10 plus knots all the way down Spieden to Jones Island. There is always a countercurrent in San Juan Channel which brought us home in good time.