Orcas T34's and T37's in Guemes Channel

July 8, 2021 – A gorgeous day to sail around the San Juan Islands. Today we went the distance to encounter some Biggs/Transient orcas known as T34’s and T37’s. As we left the dock they were found near the bottom of Barnes and Clark Islands in Rosario traveling South/Southeast. As we came through Peavine Pass they were on the Northeast side of Cypress Island milling for quite some time. We crossed Rosario towards Cypress with the intention of meeting them over the top. However, as we got closer to Cypress the whales began traveling south along the east side, so we changed course to meet them at the bottom. Hugging the beautiful west side of Cypress we looked for back eddies since we were against the flood current. As we approached the bottom of Cypress we saw a couple whale watch boats and we were excited to be almost there. But, suddenly the whales made a left turn and took Guemes Channel going away from us in the flood traveling over 9 knots. We realized it would be hard to catch them so we bailed on the chase and had a peaceful sail up the east side of Cypress with hopes they’d come up the east side of Guemes Island and meet us at the top. Well our plan was working as they did head north quickly so we changed course to wrap around the north side of Guemes and meet them. But, our plan back fired again as the orcas stopped to hunt and began milling for quite some time on the east side of the island. Onwards we went not giving up this time. At last we arrived on scene to find the orcas eating their meal with dozens of gulls circling above looking for scraps. Several whales side by side sat there logging at the surface for several minutes occasionally poking their rostrums up in the air and sinking them back down. As the orcas began traveling again there was a bit of play as they went by with a spy hop and a few tails in the air. It was a fun encounter and well worth the effort to get there. On our return we had a fantastic close hauled sail to the top of Cypress Island. Winds picked up in Rosario so we went to the first reef before crossing the Strait. We had a ways to go so eventually we kicked in the iron genny and motor sailed back to Friday Harbor.