July 4th sail with J pod, sunset, moonrise and fireworks

July 4, 2020 – We had a report in the morning of Southern Resident orcas from J pod inbound at Church Rock and we heard of members from L pod passing through Race Rocks Pass. We headed south picking the back eddies against the flood current out of Cattle Pass. The first orcas we spotted were J44, J46 and J27 at Eagle Pt trending southbound. We continued north on the flood scanning for fins along the way. Drift sailing backwards and sideways from Pile Pt up island we found several groups spread out foraging including J37 with J49, J35 with J47, and the J19’s. As we neared Lime Kiln J19 seemed to be hurrying the others along with repeated tail slaps seeming to signal the others to catch up. At that point they consistently moved north and we were able to drift in the strong current parallel. There was more foraging in Mitchell Bay along the way and some orcas within Open Bay. At Kellett Bluff J22 and her son J38 showed up. We left the whales at Battleship as they began porpoising towards Stuart Island.

With the tide switching to ebb we hugged the coastline for back eddies along the northern coast of San Juan Island. We came through the Wasp Islands as the sun was setting treating us to a magnificent sunset. After the sun went down the full moon rose and we tacked to sail into Friday Harbor for the fireworks show.