orcas – Riveted

Orcas near Patos (and a whole lotta law enforcement)

Laura Domela — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 23:42:02 +0000

Wow, today on the water was weird! Cool, but also weird. Sam left Shallow Cove on Sucia Island about an hour before we did. As we were leaving, he texted us and said he'd been boarded by the San Juan Sheriff. They inspected all his safety gear and documentation and stuff (he passed) and then they were on their way. We joked back and forth that maybe they'd be on the lookout for us next!

We headed off toward the west side of San Juan Island to look for orcas, but pretty soon we noticed five or so boats over near the Canadian border.

Where there's this, there are probably whales. I looked on my Marine Traffic app and one of them was definitely a whale watching boat, and after binoc'ing them, we confirmed: whale watching boats. So off we went. A few minutes later a Department of Fish & Wildlife patrol boat came zooming toward us. Hey! It must be the day to be boarded in the San Juan Islands! We slowed down and then idled as they came up on our port side and asked for our identification. We handed over our IDs as they asked us where we were going, if this was our boat, where we kept it, whether we lived on it, and if we were going to Canada. We told them we had been planning to go look for orcas on the west side of San Juan Island, but that we spotted all those whale watching boats over there so we thought we'd go see if we could see some whales. We were just out cruising around. No we weren't going to Canada, yes this is our boat, etc. They copied our IDs and let us carry on our way.

The whole time that was going on, there was also a sheriff's boat stopped not too far away, watching us:

As soon as we got back underway, it seemed like the sheriff's boat was heading to intercept us, but then it didn't. We continued toward the orcas, and spent a half an hour or so with them from a pretty good distance. There were a couple of large adults, and quite a few young feisty ones. Pretty sweet!

The whole time we were watching whales (just across the border in Canadian waters), the sheriff's boat was parked at the border, watching. Maybe they wanted to make sure we came back, but it was a little weird.

The orcas were heading north, and we thought we'd gotten a pretty good show, so we turned to head back and decided to go over to Patos. The sheriff picked up speed and looked like they were coming to intercept us. They parked right at the entrance to Active Cove on Patos. We slowed up, assuming they were going to want to chat, since that seems to be the kind of day it is up here, but they just sat and watched us as we went into the cove and grabbed the mooring buoy. Just past the sheriff's boat, there was also a Coast Guard boat, sitting on the other side of the point where the lighthouse is. Also this morning, a Coast Guard helicopter flew really low over the cove we were anchored in. All in all, the vibe out here is certainly as if something is UP. I was hoping the sheriff would follow us into the cove here so we could ask him what the heck was going on, but he didn't.

Maybe this has something to do with those two guys with no boat we saw the last time we were here on Patos!!!

So, the orcas, the San Juan Sheriff, the Department of Fish & Wildlife, and the Coast Guard. They're all here. Where's the party?

Hanging with Friends in the San Juan Islands

Laura Domela — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 22:10:01 +0000

Part One

We left Portland on Tuesday and popped up to Anacortes to do a little cruising around the San Juan Islands. We've been busy catching up with friends since we got back from Alaska and this week we decided to combine that with some boating!

Our friends Bob and Sissy from Bodega Bay happened to be up on Whidbey Island celebrating their 10 year anniversary, and they decided to meet up with us for a little cruise. (Bob and Sissy own a wine shop called Gourmet au Bay that you might remember if you've been following along for a while.)

Leaving Anacortes on Wednesday morning:

We went over to Rosario Resort on Orcas Island and stopped for lunch. There was a bit of fog when we first got to Rosario, but it was still pretty (and it burned off during lunch).

Our original plan was to head over and grab a mooring ball at Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island. Our friend Sam was going to meet us there late in the afternoon (in his Nordic Tug 37) and we'd all have dinner together. We had some time to kill so we opted to go out San Juan Channel a bit toward Cattle Pass and look for orcas before heading to Spencer Spit.

Hey what do you know?? We found some!

It was perfect! Sissy and Bob had never been to the San Juan Islands, nor had they seen orcas in the wild. We scored for the vacationers, yay!

We texted with Sam and decided to meet over in Brigantine Bay on Decatur Island instead of Spencer Spit. We got there a bit after Sam and rafted up with him for easier dinner party back and forth access.

Just in time for a pretty sunset:

We grilled some salmon, roasted some baby potatoes with rosemary, and made a spinach salad, and Sam made some yum brownies for dessert. And wine. Sissy and Bob brought wine, of course. It was a fun evening!

Sunrise this morning:

I made breakfast tacos for everyone, then we said goodbye to Sam and headed back to Anacortes so Sissy and Bob could catch their flight back to California.

Decatur Island back to Anacortes (12 nautical miles, 1 hour 48 minutes):

Oh yeah, porpoises:

Tomorrow, we'll head out with some more friends for a few days. Our plan is to cruise over to Patos Island for a lighthouse hike and lunch, then to Sucia Island for the night (meeting up with Sam again!). We'll hike around Sucia on Saturday morning, then cruise over to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island for Saturday night (and have dinner at McMillin's). On Sunday we'll head back to Anacortes (with some dilly dallying and whale scouting in there somewhere).

Fun!

K-Dubs and HBs

Laura Domela — Wed, 13 May 2015 21:10:44 +0000

We left Roche Harbor this morning and headed out to find some whales. It was a good day for 'em! Just as we were coming around Henry Island at the north end of San Juan Island we heard one of the whale watching boats nearby talking about K-dubs (radio code for killer whales) on the radio. We could see this boat (and the orcas) with the new Fuji binoculars (wow, was THAT ever a useful addition to Airship's accessories…will show you in another post), so we headed over toward the growing group of whale watching boats.

After watching the orcas from a distance for a while, we heard another nearby boat talking about some HBs (secret code for humpbacks) a little to the north, so we headed up there (with all the other boats).

It's quite a bit more fun when you just happen to come across whales as you're going about your cruise, but this was still pretty cool. The boats mostly stay a good distance from the whales (I know it doesn't look like it in this long lens/compressed distance shot above), but it definitely has a different feel when there are 10 boats covered in people watching with you.

It WAS pretty adorable when the new boat that showed up right before we left saw the humpback's tail for the first time and the whole boat cheered and screamed in glee.

There were two humpbacks traveling together, but only one would show its tail as it surfaced.

We continued down the west side of San Juan Island but didn't see anything else besides porpoises and seals.

We are now at Watmough Bay at the south end of Lopez Island. Here's our track from today (37.98 nautical miles):

Whales All Day

Laura Domela — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:14:07 +0000

This post will be all about whales. I'll do another post where I tell you all the other cool things about our cruise from Port Townsend north to Stuart Island, but not in this post. This post is the post with all the whale photos.

Yesterday in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we got to see our first Minke whales!

There were two of them, and they're pretty cool. Kinda boring as far as whale viewing goes (no breaching or tail slaps normally, but I love the perfect wave shape of their dorsal fins.

Then, as we got up along the west side of San Juan Island and around Henry Island, ahead of us a ways we saw a couple of big splashes (we think breaches) and eventually came upon a large pod of orcas (technically cetaceans — part of the dolphin family — and not whales), including several youngsters!! It was so cool! We turned around and ran parallel with them for about an hour, taking way too many photos. Here is a very VERY small percentage of them.

(See the baby peeking out from behind mama?)

Orca on its belly with fins in the air beside the rocks:

Rounding the tip of Henry Island:

Pretty sweet, huh? Conditions were perfect and they were super active. We even got a couple of spyhops and good body/tail shots:

This morning when we left Stuart Island we decided to head back via the back side of San Juan Island to see if we could see them again. We were trucking along and all of a sudden there was one right on my starboard side, pretty close and headed the opposite direction. We quickly pulled the throttle and waited for it to pass, and it looked like there were two more behind that one heading north, but it was a little too rough to get any decent photos. But yay! More orcas!

There you go, the whale report from yesterday. Also, there are whale watching people who know way more about which whales these might have been, and they report on them frequently here.

Here's yesterday's track (you can see where the Orcas were by the green doubled line on the west of San Juan Island, and the Minke whales are near that little circle southwest of Minor Island out in the Strait). All told we traveled 55.4 nautical miles over 8 hours.

Happy New Year!

Laura Domela — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 18:28:24 +0000

On Sunday (the 27th) we headed north to the boat with our friends Jake & Patti (visiting from San Diego) to do a little cruising in the San Juan Islands. The weather was supposed to be great except for Monday (25-35 kt winds, wind waves 5-7 feet), so we left Portland early on Sunday morning so we'd have enough time on Sunday to cruise from Anacortes over to Rosario Resort on Orcas Island. We could happily wait out Monday's wind by staying put at Rosario through Tuesday, kickin' it at the spa.

Rosario mansion from the water:

Airship in its slip at the Rosario Marina:

The outdoor pool, viewed from the Mansion museum:

View into the bay:

This was a great first stop. We all got some great chill time with gorgeous scenery and good food and conversation. Here's what the windy Monday looked like in our little bay:

On Tuesday morning all was calm again in the channel, so we headed out (after a second round of delicious eggs benedict in the Mansion Restaurant). The weather was gorgeous, with a nice clear view of Mt. Baker:

We stopped at Fossil Bay on Sucia Island for a little hike:

Fox Cove:

Jake and Patti on Sucia:

From Sucia we headed over to Patos Island where we spent Tuesday night. We had just enough time to take the dinghy ashore and do a quick hike out to the lighthouse for some sunset photos.

For dinner we grilled some halibut and I made a bernaise sauce with fresh crab meat and spooned that over the top of the fish, then topped it with some skinny asparagus spears. It turned out great!

We were the only ones on the island at Patos. Again.

Sunrise on Wednesday, New Year's Eve (Orcas Island off in the distance):

We had some breakfast and then got underway for a cruise over to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island where we planned to spend New Year's Eve. We kept an eye out for orcas and humpbacks, but had no luck.

New spot at Roche Harbor:

Looking back at the marina from town (we're over there on the right somewhere):

We grabbed a bite for lunch at the Lime Kiln Cafe, wandered around town a bit, and then hiked up through the graveyeard to the kooky mausoleum again. (See previous entry about Roche Harbor and the Mausoleum here.)

New Year's Eve dinner was up here at McMillin's.

The restaurant was serving a prix fixe 5-course menu for New Year's Eve and it was delicious. We started with a cocktail and a duck potsticker, then came the house salad, then a Maine lobster tail, then Chateaubriand. We finished with some house-made chocolate truffles and headed back to the boat. We opened a bottle of champagne and played cards and laughed until midnight. Great evening!

In the morning we headed out for a nice day of cruising back to Anacortes. We went south around the west side of San Juan Island, looking for orcas and just generally enjoying the spectacular weather. Seriously! The weather!

The water was calm, the sky was a beautiful mix of clouds and sun, and you could see for miles.

A tanker with two tugs on our way back into port at Anacortes. (Do It Right. No Smoking):

Here's our route…each day is a different color. Anacortes to Rosario (black), Rosario to Sucia and then Patos (orange), Patos to Roche Harbor (neon green), Roche Harbor back to Anacortes (turqoise):

We got back to Portland late last night, and took our friends to the airport this morning. It was such a fun trip, and a great visit overall!

Happy New Year everyone!

Whales on Radar

Laura Domela — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 12:33:00 +0000

We left Roche Harbor yesterday around 11am. We thought we'd head south along the back side of San Juan Island where we'd seen the orcas the other day. We knew their spot…almost all the way down the island to the southern tip.

We were motoring along as Kevin was trying out a new feature of the radar. It's a radar alert area, and if anything comes within the area ahead of you, it beep beep beeps with a warning signal. You can see the radar panel on the left, below. The alert area is inside that red outline (and the boat is in the center of the innermost circle).

The middle panel is the chart panel, and the pink line is our course as it follows along the shore of San Juan Island, just FYI. We've got a course plotted from Roche Harbor to Anacortes, and the autopilot will take us there while we watch and avoid kelp (and other boats).

Anyway, we're going along, all by ourselves, and a little beep beep beep happens, along with a tiny dot on the radar (about the size of that tiny dot nearest the red zone on the photo above), and then quickly disappears. Not a boat in sight. About 30 seconds later, it happens again. Another tiny dot, then poof. We both think "whales?"

But we were quite a bit more north than where we saw the pod the other day, and there was no cluster of whale watching boats to say "Hey everyone, here are the whales!"

Then all of a sudden on our port side, about 50 yards from us…a HUGE orca comes up for air. Holy shit. Kevin's at the helm and I'm quickly saying "Oh my god, it's RIGHT THERE! Shut it all off." You're not supposed to get very close to the orcas (but they were this close to us!) and if you find you are close, you're supposed to just kill the engine and wait for them to pass. So that's what we did. There were several of them swimming all around us. Amazing.

I didn't manage to get a photo of the closest one, but these photos are taken with my wide-angle fixed lens Fuji x100s, and not my Nikon with the 200mm lens…and they're cropped in a little, but only a little. They were SO CLOSE. Here's a shot Kevin took with his iPhone (you can see my arm there on the left). SO. CLOSE.

We probably saw a dozen or so more (further away) as we continued on down the back side of San Juan. We saw a half dozen whale watching boats hauling ass up to where we'd been, so someone else must have radioed in to alert 'em.

We continued around the bottom of Lopez Island and headed back into Anacortes, feeling pretty psyched about our orca experience for the day.

Oh hi again, Canada:

We arrived back at Cap Sante Marina, washed the salt water off of Airship (and squeegeed the windows all nice), plugged her in and then and ended up joining the Nordic NW team for dinner. Super fun evening with great folks. Today is the last day of the Anacortes Boat Show…if you're nearby, come on down!