Aug 4

We made the quick pit stop at Viti Rocks to look at a variety of bird species and harbor seals.

Soon after, we went towards Sinclair to look for a humpback that was lost about 20 minutes before.

We ended up spotting it going north by Sinclair, and it turns out when we got closer, it was a gray whale!

It was one of the smallest baleen whale we have ever seen. It was so cute! It tail fluked almost every time it surfaced, and we got to even see It underwater. It has some white on the top of its tail that flashed through the water.

 

Aug 5

Today we saw lots of harbor seals on Viti Rocks, along with a few pups! Some of them looked real high upon the shoreline, we made our way to a navigation marker with 3 or 4 stellers, sleeping away.

There were reports of a couple humpbacks as they were coming north near deception pass. They were large humpbacks, one was named Thunderbolt and one was just about 2 years old. They made two really close passes where we got to really see how large these animals are. It was amazing seeing their blowholes open and close up close, and close up tail fluke. Incredible sighting overall.

 

Aug 6

We made some classic stops at Viti and the Sinclair navigation markers for sea lions. Very sleepy pinnipeds today.
Then we made our way North in search of some humpbacks, but then we got a call from another boat that there were some orcas! So we made a quick turn to search for that report. It took us about 15 minutes to find them.

It turns out that they were the T137s. These guys were in Johnstone strait on only Sunday! 230 miles in 2 days!

These guys are my favorite group to watch. We caught up with them near Bennet Bay in Canada.

 

Aug 7

We braved our way through the fog today, up North towards Active Pass and the Strait of Georgia. The fog cleared up for us nicely and we were able to see some Steller Sea Lions jumping up on the navigational marker at Pt. Migley on Lummi.

As we approached the scene up north, the humpback we were coming to watch started breaching and pectoral slapping! Over and over again, we got some great looks at the whole animal as we approached the scene.

The humpback settled into a feeding pattern shortly after we arrived, and we got many great waves from the tail flukes which allowed us to easily identify the whale as Yogi – BCY0409

On the way back home we saw a Dalls Porpoise! It was our first time watching them, so I was very excited to see these porpoises behave just a bit differently to our standard harbor porpoise sightings. Overall, a lovely active day.

 

Aug 8

Smooth waters today as we made our way to Eliza Rocks this morning to look at harbor seals. The skies were clear, so we were able to scan up the strait before heading through the middle of the islands for the day’s whale search.

We stopped to look at Steller sea lions at Whale Rocks just before entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We were able to spot a Minke whale on a remnant bait ball. We even saw part of the Minke’s baleen as it came to the surface to scoop for fish.

On our way back north, we stopped by Castle Rock off of Lopez Island and were able to see some rare birds. Captain Michael spotted a pair of Ancient Murclets that we watched as we cruised through the narrow passage. We also saw a harbor seal pup nursing with mom.

 

Aug 9

We stopped at Migley Point to see a big group of harbor seals and then swung by a buoy with four sea lions on it, as well as another one trying to join.

Then we headed straight up north to some humpback sightings, near Active Pass over the Canadian border. We just barely spotted them with the help of a passenger. The whales were being pretty erratic, going in circles and popping up very sporadically. 

We got lucky and one of the whales popped up quite close to the boat and surfaced for 4-6 breaths. We were able to hear several exhalations! Then after the close one dove, we lost them.

 

Aug 10

As we were making our way over the top of Sinclair Island this morning, we watched a couple of sea lions splashing around a navigation marker. There were three in the water and 1 trying to sleep.

As soon as we got close enough to see the 2 humpbacks; there were two breaches. They continued to swim on their backs, slap and wave their pectoral fins, and they did a couple of peduncle throws! We really got to see the size of the massive humpbacks. When they were showing us their pectoral fins, we got to see barnacles on them and they were also showing their ventral grooves.

They were quite active the entire time we were with them. We were very lucky to have been able to see something so spectacular!