Whale Watching Out of Anacortes

Friday, August 5th, which was the day Donna would fly back to Cleveland was spent on a whale-watch tour out of Anacortes.  We must have done something right - the weather was picture-perfect.  Got checked in at the main location, drove to the marina and got in line to board our Island Adventure Whale Watch tour.  Woot, Woot!!

Island Adventure 3 - our boat for the day

Captain Donna

Leaving Anacortes behind, heading out to the Strait of Georgia

Boat departed at 10am and we headed out into Pugent Sound, headed towards the San Juan Islands.  We had been on another whale watch tour last time in the Port Angeles area and Dave’s and my expectations were that we would see whales and orcas again.  But, that trip went to the southern tip of San Juan Island (near Lime Kiln State Park) and also it drifted around Lopez Island.

Homes tucked up into the hillside of island

Oh Yeah

I was fascinated by watching our progress on the chart

Inside the cabin area a large screen TV showed our process on the water and we headed north of Orcas Island and out into the Strait of Georgia, a huge body of water that is the main channel for ocean going vessels.  Saw some freighter traffic and our boat headed towards a land where sea life was spotted.  Bald Eagles, harbor seals, and many kinds of birds and ducks were spotted, still drifting north and west.  Stopped by a small island where a very large sea lion was basking.  Big bad boy!

Skirted in and around small islands

Canada in distance, eh?

Amazing rip-tides coming in, foaming water.  The captain said they had received information that orcas were spotted by some Canadian boats so he headed towards them. We were in Canadian waters by the time we really got a great show of the orcas.

Saw our first breach in the distance!

Wonder of the people on land saw those orcas right in front of them?

Rip tide, orcas in background near small island

A couple of pods (groupings of orcas - they are very, very social animals) were frolicking in the waters.  Jumping, breaching, spy hopping - terms we learned.  What a wonderful show!  The orcas are numbered by social group (J pod, L pod, M pod, etc) and then each orca is identified by it’s dorsal fin, the saddle patch which it’s distinct marking behind the dorsal fin, and the pectoral fin.  They are also identified by looking at their fluke (big back tail fin). Eye patches vary, and the area where the fluke meets the body also is a marker.  As we were watching, the on-board naturalist would say for example - there’s such and so also known as J number, and go on and tell us the history of that orca.  They are all catalogued, studied, monitored.

Theme song from "Jaws" was running through my head

Car freighter in background - going up the Fraser River

Lots of whale watching boats around

What a terrific day on the water!  Saw so many orcas - grandmothers, mothers, their sons and daughters, new babies. The crew were so happy - they said they have not seen so many in one place at one time.  And to see them in their natural surroundings and not in captivity was a treat to us.

Can you say, wow!  How did I get this picture???

Mom and her baby 

Big ole fat sea lion and Harbor Seals basking in the sun

A big WOW day.  And the biggest wow was back at the RV, going through my pictures, thought I did not get any good ones - and Bang!  Look what I was able to get.

Got back to the RV by 4pm, Donna packed and we stopped for a quick Mexican dinner, drove her down to the SeaTac airport south of Seattle by 8pm and she was on her way back to Cleveland.  We got back to the RV by 10pm and we spent a half an hour reminiscing about our week with Donna.  What a great time with her, thank you Donna for coming to visit us!!