August 27, 2024 – Another epic adventure! Our morning started with a report of orcas going up the westside of San Juan Island. The orcas were the T124D’s and they rounded Stuart Island and moved very quickly up Boundary Pass towards East Point. We hurried as best we could but realised we were never going to catch them as they were bombing north very fast. More reports came in of orcas near Alden Bank moving south and others by Barnes and Clark Islands moving southeast. We pressed on riding the flood current up President Channel enjoying the scenic views of Orcas Island north coast. As we crossed toward Matia Island we arrived on scene as the southerly group of orcas turned north and met up with the others. Lots of tail lobbing, cartwheels, and socializing amongst the orcas. All together we had the T19’s (no T18 there), T36’s (T36 and T36B’s), T49A’s (minus T49A1 and T49A2), T65A5, and the T137’s. The orcas gathered in loose groups treating us to awesome views with backlit exhales as they milled around with multiple direction changes along the Orcas Island shoreline. We saw many breaches, belly flops, tail lobs, dorsal fin slaps, pectoral flipper slaps and so on. Huge male orcas T137A and T19C even breached a few times. Eventually the T36’s and T137’s chose to go north, and we stuck with the T19’s and T49A’s in a southerly direction. As they rounded Lawrence Pt T49A grabbed a harbor seal and again near Peapod Rocks. The T49A’s seemed to toy with the seal at the surface holding it while they were all face to face. We saw they let is go and it swam away and they turned to go after it. Shortly after the orcas all grouped up and continued south. It was time for us to head back so we took Obstruction Pass and came inter-island back to Friday Harbor. The T19’s split from the T49A’s and they followed us through Obstruction Pass, too. The T49A’s later came inter-island after entering Thatcher Pass. An incredible day!
