Short sunset sail with Orcas T77's

June 28, 2020 – As we were returning from our earlier sail we encountered a family of Biggs/Transient orcas known as the T77’s (minus T77B) outside of Friday Harbor. In order to catch up with them on our evening sunset sail we hurried to get off the dock quickly.

The family of orcas were moving slowly up the channel with a brief break to stop for a meal offshore of O’Neal Island. Turning left into Spieden Channel gave us gorgeous views looking towards Canada with layers of islands in the distance and backlit orca blows. The orcas crossed from San Juan Island over to Spieden Island and traveled along the shoreline. We sailed around Sentinel Island and over to Sentinel Rock to check out the harbor seals and found a pair of bald eagles checking us out. The golden glow on the southern side of Spieden was very pretty, but the forested reflections on the north side of the island was just as nice. The orcas continued northwest towards Stuart Island and we turned right to explore the beauty of New Channel.

Winds were picking up giving us a chance to pull out the head sail for a nice close hauled sail across to Orcas Island. Tacking in Spring Passage we headed south towards Nob Island and paused to admire the islands in the setting sun as we drifted through the pass. The winds carried us across the channel to Pt Caution and we spun around to watch the sun as it was going down.