Full day sail around Lopez seeing two orca pods (T37A's and T65A's)

July 18, 2020 – Exiting the harbor we raised the sails and went wing on wing taking the pass behind Turn Island. A harbor seal was fast asleep on a bed of kelp as we drifted by quietly without waking him up. Many other harbor seals were enjoying the exposed rocks at low tide as they warmed up in the sunshine. With the flood tide beginning we made our way down San Juan Channel using the back eddy of Griffin Bay down to Cattle Pass. Harbor seals were swimming together in the shallows by Goose Island while gulls and cormorants were busy making a racket. We found two male steller sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks today and a bald eagle was perched nearby her nest on Long Island.

Earlier in the day we had been following reports of two families of orcas known as the T37A’s and the T65A’s who had been hanging out on the east side of James Island for quite some time. Eventually the T37A’s broke off and traveled down Rosario along the southern coastline of Lopez Island. We met the orcas at the picturesque Castle Rock where they appeared to stop to hunt for awhile. The flood current was moving very quickly between Colville Island and Castle Rock and the orcas moved back and forth between the islands as they were hunting. After a really fun encounter we decided to continue around Lopez where the strong current was in our favor to get a look at the other family of orcas who were now traveling down Rosario.

As we came around Watmough Head we spotted the blows in the distance as the orcas powered their way ESE down the Strait. Nice views of Mt Baker, Mt Rainier and Deception Pass Bridge in the distance. Since the orcas were on their way to Puget Sound and going the wrong direction we decided to spin around and continue up the Strait using the flood current. We came inside of James Island and into Thatcher Pass to hug the steep coastline of Blakely Island before crossing over to Upright Head. A bald eagle watched us sail by while a Peregrine Falcon ignored us without evening turning his head to look at us – perhaps he was asleep.

When we rounded Flat Pt we had another quick look at the T37A’s who had come up San Juan Channel and made a right turn in Upright Channel towards Upright Head where we just came from. This time the orca family was in travel mode and we too were in travel mode back to Friday Harbor to make it back in time to meet the ferry.