Top Row: A humpback with Mount Rainier, and T75B’s, both south of Cattle Pass on 5/23. By Lincoln Humphry
Bottom Row: Big Mama the humpback and her new 8th calf showing some pectoral fin on 5/25. By Kurt Leipold
5/23
Standard Viti rocks start, with double crested cormorants, glaucous winged gulls, pigeon guillemots and harbor seals. Five sleepy, sunbathing Stellar sea lions cuddling on a channel marker, always cute. We headed inner island through Peavine Pass into Cattle pass, out to the Straight of Juan De Fuca toward some reports.
We caught up with the T075Bs with some really good looks at saddle patches, eye patches and their sleek bodies. We were lucky enough to be approached by them going right under us! Hearing their spouts and seeing them under the water was just magical. Once they had cleared out, we headed toward another report.
One sleepy humpback just southwest of the orcas with great looks at their powerful spout, traveling steadily eastward.
Rounded Lopez through Castle Rock a cool geographic area, into Rosario when captain Jeff spotted us our second humpback of the day! A juvenile heading west towards Lopez Pass, before heading up Bellingham Channel home.
5/24
At the typical first stop at Viti, we saw thermoregulating harbor seals, nesting cormorants, singing pigeon guillemots, and noisy glaucous wing gulls. Of course there were some Stellers on a navigation marker too.
A passenger saw the fins of a group of orcas off the east side of Orcas island, which is always fun. They turned out to be the T123s!! We got a couple absolutely spectacular spy hops, and they were milling for a long time.
After that we kept traveling north and wound up spending a good portion of our day with Big Mama and her 8th calf! It was such a special experience to get to see them swim together. This was near Saturna island.
On our way back home we went past the Patos light house and watched the T123s for a few minutes again before taking Hail Pass home.
5/25
What a day!!
We went straight to the West side of San Juan Island where there were reports of Big Mama and her calf. The calf was so so playful when we arrived. Lots of peduncle throws, we got glimpses of its rostrum and pectoral fins. The baby was waving to us!! We also saw it upside down a few times.
On the way back we stopped at Viti and saw the nesting birds there. Their were also many harbor porpoise out today! We saw Big Mama and her calf with the Stuart Island Lighthouse and Mt Baker in the background.
5/26
We left the dock in dumping rain conditions. Due to some promising reports we B-lined it through the inner islands.
Stopped at Spindle Rock seeing who was out at such a low tide. Surprisingly, no one was hauled out, but got some great looks at the intertidal zone. Crept through Peavine Pass into the heart of the San Juan’s and kept pushing north through Harney Channel. Early morning reports kept looking more and more promising of Biggs orcas pushing East towards Waldron Island. Found a good haul out of harbor seals on White Rock getting a good look at the different coloration of their coats and their silly banana shaped bodies when drying off.
Spent at least an hour hanging out with the T100s and T124Ds as they practiced some direction changes. They gave us great looks at their dorsal fins, eye patches and saddle patches. They continued eastward along Waldron. We were lucky enough to hold the whales alone awaiting other PWWA companies to make their way to us. Skies cleared up, the sun came out.
Searched and scanned North into the Strait of Georgia wrapping around the north side of Patos Island, down through Hale passage and back into Bellingham Bay.
