May 31, 2004

Another beautiful whale watching day. Today we got a report of J-pod heading north again, but not too far away yet.

We took off at 12:00 and headed straight up to where they were as fast as we could go. I even drafted on the wake of another vessel to pick up some speed. It's tricky trying to surf a 33 ton boat, but it definitely helped and I had some fun doing it.

We found J-pod up in the Canadian Gulf Islands and immediately had a great visit with Ruffles. We had him about 125 yards off of our boat, slowly coming up to take a breath and then sliding back beneath the water. His 6 foot dorsal fin looked like a periscope as it cut through the water, rising up higher and higher until his back broke the surface. After hanging out with Ruffles and the rest of the pod for a while we ran back down through Navy Channel, which is one of my favorite routes for its breathtaking scenery.

On the way into Friday Harbor we were treated with a truly surprising sight. What looked at first to be a Harbor Seal off of our port bow turned out to be a Black Tailed Deer swimming across to the University of Washington Labs. I have heard that the local deer will swim from island to island, but this is the first time I have seen it with my own eyes. Pretty amazing! I think one of our passengers got a photo. I will try to put it up on the site soon.

May 30, 2004

We had a very eclectic group on board today. We had some locals from Lopez Island, a school group from Wenatchee, a family from Bombay, India, and some folks from Oklahoma. It's always interesting to meet all of the different people that come out with us.

Rowann and Charlotte (2 of our naturalists) did a great job today keeping everyone interested and entertained. Excellent job you two!!

We got the word just before we left the dock that J-pod was traveling north towards the Fraser River, near Vancouver, and that they would be out of reach for our trip. Orcas can travel up to 100 miles in a day and travel where they please. So we geared up for a great wildlife trip instead.

The weather was just incredible today. Sunny and clear. We had spectacular views of the local islands as we headed north to find Dall's Porpoise.

On our way up San Juan Channel, we found a Stellar Sea Lion swimming through the water. A special treat this time of year. The 2000 pound light brown animal was just cruising along, coming up for a breath every now and then. We could see the water drip from its whiskers and the mist shoot from its mouth every time it came up. On the way out to Haro Strait we stopped at Speiden Island to take a look at the Big Horn Sheep (originally from Greece) grazing along the hillside. We had a great view of a particularly large male with a huge horns!

As we continued north we found lots of Dall's Porpoise near Turn Point (the most North West point in the lower 48). These playful creatures are 6' long, black and white, and are often mistaken for baby orcas.

On the way back to San Juan Island we ran through John's Pass and through Cactus Islands where we found an active Bald Eagle's nest with a mature eagle in the nest tending to eggs.

What a great wildlife day!! Hopefully J-pod will decide to stick around for us tomorrow.

May 29, 2004

Well, it's definitely Memorial Day Weekend. Lots of boaters out and tons of people in town. While I was fueling up today I witnessed a pleasure boat running into a ferry! Yes, I did say "a boat running into a ferry". There's a first time for everything.

Big news today! L-pod showed up north of here heading down south towards San Juan Island. Today is the first day this year that they have been spotted in these waters. We ran 2 whale watching trips today that were completely different.

Our 12:30 trip took us north to catch up with L-pod near Stuart Island. They were spread out over 3 miles today. We had some great views of a couple big males as they moved quickly (7 knots at times) down Haro Strait. We were able to head back through Mosquito Pass and check out the waterfront homes and Roche Harbor.

For our 4:30 trip we headed south to catch up with L-pod again a few miles off of San Juan Island. We had a group of 12 coworkers from Microsoft and family from Seattle on the boat this evening. The water was glassy calm this evening. It looked almost like we were running through mercury. Right as we left we also received a report of J-pod over in Rosario Strait, which is near Anacortes. Very interesting. Sounded like a good chance for a superpod sighting. As it turns out, we followed L-pod out west almost to Victoria. J-pod didn't show up, but we had a great show with lots of breaching, spyhopping and some interesting vocalizations.

Maybe tomorrow we will get the superpod. I'm crossing my fingers.

May 28, 2004

After a couple of days off of the water, I was ready to get back out with J-pod. The weather has been pretty rainy the last couple of days, and today was absolutely beautiful.

We ran south down San Juan Channel today and caught up with the orcas on the west side of the island again. We were shut down about 150 yards away from the whales when Blossom (J11) and her calf decided to change direction to come over and check us out. They went right by the boat!

On the way back to Friday Harbor we were treated to a lone Stellar Sea Lion hauled out on Whale Rocks and had a great view of a mature Bald Eagle on Long Island.

May 25, 2004

What a fantastic day! We found J-pod just south of San Juan Island in the glassy calm waters off of South Beach.

They were very spread out and moving slowly. So we set up and shut the engines down to let them go by. We sat like that for a good 45 minutes while the whales foraged for salmon all around us. I am including a couple of photos for today's report. One is of Ruffles gliding by with the Olympic Mountains in the background. The other one is of Spieden, who turned towards the stern of our boat, made a deep dive underneath us and then surfaced about 2 FEET off of our stern, going back the other way!! No one saw it coming. I was just lucky enough to be standing on the canopy with my camera in hand.

On the way home to Friday Harbor we were able to stop at a great seal haul out on Whale Rocks and got an excellent view of an immature Bald Eagle and a Bald Eagle's nest on Turn Island. The refreshing afternoon drizzle on the way home didn't dampen anyone's spirits.

May 24, 2004

Another beautiful day on the water, and what a great group of passengers today! We had a really energetic group of 8 people who came up for a work retreat from Seattle, a group of 4 from Korea, including 2 nuns, and even a couple from Louisiana. What a great mix!

Shann did an excellent job as naturalist today and JB, who normally works on another whale watching boat, was our guest assistant naturalist today. Thanks to both of you for making it a great trip!

After running through Mosquito Pass (see May 22 report), we found J-pod slowly moving up towards the north end of San Juan Island in a resting pattern. As they passed, we could see the tip of Ruffles' 6 foot long dorsal fin slowly break the water and then rise up to it's full length as he took a breath, and then slowly disappear again beneath the waves. At the same time, about 20 other whales would come up for a breath around him and then slide back down, almost synchronized. It was a very serene and beautiful.

May 23, 2004

Today we ran an 8 hour wildlife and whale watching charter for students of a Marine Mammal class from the University of Washington, which is in Seattle.

The weather was beautiful and sunny, with slick calm water throughout most of the areas we traveled. It was incredibly clear today as well. We had some great views of the snow capped Mt. Baker to the north east and the Olympic Peninsula to the south.

We covered a lot of ground today; running up north towards the Gulf Islands of Canada, around Turn Point (the most NW point in the US, not including Alaska), down the west side of San Juan Island, and then back up San Juan Channel to Friday Harbor.

We started the day off with a great seal haul out on White Rock. There was also a mature Bald Eagle perched on the highest point above the seals, looking very majestic.

As we were running up north from there, we came across a large group of Harbor Porpoises. These are very shy animals and we normally do not get to see much of them. With the engines shut down, we just drifted for a while watching them surface, their small gray dorsal fin sliding out of the glassy water and then disappearing again underneath.

We also found Dall's Porpoises in Haro Strait. They seemed very intent on feeding in that area and only a few played with us when we invited them. However, we did get great views of some lung feeding going on at the surface. These little guys can swim up to 30 knots when they want to. We also had an excellent sighting of a hybrid, which is a cross between a Dall's Porpoise and a Harbor Porpoise. They look a lot like a Harbor, but act like and associate with the Dall's. Very interesting!

Further south, we caught up with the orcas and enjoyed some spectacular whale watching. They were spread out and heading up along San Juan Island. Jacquelyn took our dogs to South Beach to swim and got a great view from shore as well today. There was a lot of activity going on and we were treated to a double breach by a juvenile right before we left.

On the way back to Friday Harbor we stopped at Whale Rocks and found two Stellar Sea Lions hanging around in the water with a Harbor Seal and a California Sea Lion.

We saw just about every marine mammal we could see in this area today, except for a Minke whale, which we did get a report of but could not find. What an amazing day for the Marine Mammal class!

May 22, 2004

Today we actually got some much needed rain. It has been so dry lately that people are starting to worry about water supplies and river levels for Salmon runs, the main source of food for our resident orcas.

We headed up San Juan channel for our trip with a great group of passengers. We limited our passenger load to 20 today to make sure everyone was comfortable. The islands were breathtaking, with the mist hanging in the lush green trees along the shoreline.

The orcas were spotted on the west side of San Juan Island near Lime Kiln lighthouse. So we ran up north around the top of the island and through Mosquito Pass. I always enjoy running through the tight pass looking at Roche Harbor marina and all of the beautiful waterfront homes along the way. We will often see Great Blue Herons in there as well.

The whales apparently found some food on the west side today. The whole time we were watching them they were foraging and lunging about near the coastline. They would work their way south aways and then turn back up north for a while and then head back down south. We got a great view of Ruffles and Granny ( Ruffles 93 year old mother) foraging just off of the light house.

May 21, 2004

The whales went north last evening and we didn't have any sightings this morning. So, I drove out the west side to take a look. On my drive I found 6 immature Bald Eagles soaring and mock fighting above South Beach. What a sight!

This afternoon we were getting all set to run a great wildlife trip when I received a whale sighting just before we left the dock. J-pod was coming down Bellingham Channel, east of the San Juan Islands. Yeah!

We took our time running out to meet the whales today. At Turn Island we had a great look at a Bald Eagle's nest and a seal haul out, and further on down at Whale Rocks we found 3 mature Bald Eagles and tons more seals.

We met up J-pod south of Lopez Island. As they went by, near the Island, we were treated to multiple breaches and some tail slapping. After all had passed, we started the engines up and began running parallel to the whales. About this time they had begun to bunch up and started moving along faster. As we neared Cattle Pass, at the southern tip of San Juan Island, they really started putting on the steam. All of the whales, including Ruffles, started porpoising, picking up speed to about 10 knots. It was an amazing site watching all of them launch their bodies just above and through the water, especially a big bull like Ruffles. It really gives you a sense of the power these animals have.

On our run home we came back through Cattle Pass on a flood tide. The current was running through the pass at about 5 knots! It was almost like running through rapids with all of the upwellings and eddies. Another great day!

May 20, 2004

I spent the last two days performing some minor maintenance on the engines, all the while listening to whale reports on the radio. I am happy to report that the "Prince" is running beautifully. I can't wait to get back out with J-pod tomorrow! It's going to be a great weekend.

May 18, 2004

We were surprised to hear that the whales were on the west side of the island again this morning. They traveled over 50 miles since last evening!

The weather was beautiful again as we headed north from San Juan Island for another great day of whale watching. We found J-pod slowly going by Battleship Island in a resting pattern. It always fascinates me that they can shut down half of their brain to sleep while the other half keeps their breathing going and keeps them moving along.

It was really neat to see all of J-pod together coming up for air and then going down again, slowly making their way north. Each time they came up you could hear multiple blows, one after another.

As we headed up to Turn Point Lighthouse we got a close up view of the great work that Soundwatch is doing. We were drifting with our engines off when a private boater came within 25 yards of us, with their engines running, heading right for the whales that were about 150 yards ahead. Soundwatch came in, got the owner to stop, and very politely passed whale watching guidelines to him. Soundwatch has an incredibly difficult job of educating boaters, without having the authority to force them to observe whale watching guidelines.

On our run back home we came across a large group of Dall's Porpoise. You could spot them easily in the slick calm water today. We made a slow pass by, inviting them to play with us. No takers today though. They seemed more intent on feeding in the deep water off of Stuart Island.

May 17, 2004

Our 7th day in a row sighting orcas around San Juan Island. We had an incredible day with orca whales, a minke whale, bald eagles, seals, and even a stellar sea lion today.

I drove out to Eagle Point this morning to find J11 and her calf milling right off of the rocks. The rest of the pod was around the corner further north out of my view. What a special treat to see them in so close and a great way to start off the morning.

On our trip we caught up with J-pod about 20 miles north in Canadian waters. We had a wonderful pass from the orcas. With our engines shut down we had 15 to 20 whales pass about 200 yards off of our bow and then stop and turn towards us as if they were changing direction. There was a lot of tale slapping and pec slapping on the water with the whole group on the surface, as if they were having a discussion about where to go. They finally decided to keep heading north. What a great show!

There was also a Minke whale curiously hanging around the orcas today. It's interesting that this whale knows the difference between J-pod, who won't eat him, and transient orcas, who would love to make lunch out of him.

On our way home to San Juan Island we stopped near an eagle's nest and found an adult eagle in it's nest. Charlotte says that it looked like the eagle was attending to eaglets in the nest. We will definitely keep an eye on this nest for the next couple of months. We then continued on to find a lone stellar sea lion near Spieden Island. It was a real treat to find him there. They should be heading back up to Alaska any day now.

May 16, 2004

We have just added our Whale Watching and Wildlife Trip reports to the site. I will try to add reports about our trips on a regular basis and will even add a photo here and there.

We have had an incredible season so far, with lots of Dall's Porpoise, Stellar Sea Lions, Bald Eagles, and of course J-pod! It is such a joy to be making a living on these beautiful waters and to share the amazing wildlife with our guests.

Hope to see you soon,

Ivan Reiff
Captain & Owner