June 14, 2023 – During our sail today we were fortunate to sail with a family of Biggs/Transient orcas known as the T124A’s (including T124A1 minus T124A2’s) plus her brother, T124C. They were found traveling inter-island and we met them after they were exiting Wasp Passage. The group headed north up San Juan Channel, and they stopped to hunt a couple times before they reached Limestone Point. The orcas turned West in Spieden Channel and traveled against the strong flooding current.
We broke away paralleling the orcas at a distance while we cruised the Spieden Island coastline. At Sentinel Rock we thought we’d get another view of the orcas near Battleship Island but they turned south down Haro Strait in the opposite direction than we preferred to go. So, we changed course to sail wing on wing up towards New Channel. Here we found many bald eagles, black oystercatchers, harbor seals, harlequin ducks, and a family of four river otters climbing out on Ripple Island.
We cut across to Flattop Island and found many pigeon guillemots flying back and forth to the cliff ledges and another river otter – this one climbed out of the water with a sea cucumber. On the south side we spotted the pair of bald eagle chicks peering out of the nest with both parents nearby. We cut back through the Wasp Islands and had a sail across the channel back to Friday Harbor.
Sailing wing on wing leaving Friday Harbor
Bald eagle on Shirt Tail Reef Channel Marker
T124A’s plus T124C exiting Wasp Passage
T124A with youngest offspring T124A7 born 2021
T124A with youngest offspring T124A7 born 2021
T124A1
T124C
T124A with second youngest offspring, T124A6
T124A4 with calf, T124A4A, hugging Cliff Island
T124A4
Harbor seal by Yellow Island
Orca tail flukes up in the air
Orca tail flukes up in the air
Orca tail flukes up in the air
Orca tail flukes up in the air
Orca tail flukes up in the air
Orca tail flukes up in the air
T124C
T124A6
Orca tail slap
Orca tail in the air with Spieden Island back drop
T124C
T124A’s grouped up traveling towards Spieden Channel
T124A’s grouped up traveling towards Spieden Channel
T124A’s grouped up traveling towards Spieden Channel
T124A’s taking Spieden Channel
T124A’s taking Spieden Channel
T124C
T124A’s taking Spieden Channel
Pair of bald eagles on Spieden Island
Harbor seals on Sentinel Rock with black oystercatcher flying by
T124A’s headed down Haro Strait
Bald eagle flying overhead
Peregrine falcon on Spieden Island
Bald eagle on Spieden Island
Black oystercatcher flying by
Pair of bald eagles on Little Cactus Island by their nest
Harbor seal resting in a bull kelp bed
Harbor seal resting in on a rock in New Channel
Four river otters about to scurry up onto Ripple Island
Four river otters scurrying up onto Ripple Island
Flattop Island
River otter with sea cucumber
Pigeon Guillemot landing in water near Flattop Island
Harbor seal with glacial erratic on Flattop Island
Harbor seal snoozing on Flattop Island
Harbor seals with glacial erratic on Flattop Island
Black oystercatcher in the honeycombed sandstone nooks
Bald eagle sitting near a pair of eaglets in nest on Flattop Island
Bald eagle parents of the two eaglets in the nearby nest
Our passengers with Barbara enjoying the sail back to Friday Harbor
Route map 6/14/23