whale watching – 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?

No More Boatyards. Humpbacks.

Laura Domela — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 23:44:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

This morning we headed out of Snettisham in some light fog, weaving our way through only a dozen or so gill netters. The weather forecast for Stephens Passage was “Wind SE 20kt diminishing in the morning, then becoming N 10kt in the afternoon. Seas 4ft subsiding to 2 ft in the afternoon.” The fog lifted and the blue spots in the sky got larger, and by the time we reached Stephens (about 9:30am) it was flat and as smooth as glass.

We immediately found ourselves stuck in the middle of a bunch of humpbacks so we slowed up (and eventually stopped) to let them do their thing while we tried to be invisible (well, invisible, but with cameras).

There were maybe 20 in this particular group that was hanging together and they were amazing to watch. It’s hard up here not to be “too close” to the humpbacks, because they’re everywhere. Every. Where. All you can really do is just stop and wait, and we had to do that several times over the course of our trip down Stephens Passage on the way to Hobart Bay today.

One curious guy came over to check us out…um, too close too close too close too close WAY too close. Not much to be done but just sit there, shut down, and make sure you’re not bugging ‘em. I don’t think we were bugging ‘em. I think they kinda liked us.

Here are a bunch of photos, and some video….to give you an idea of what it’s like up here:

I was about to get the coolest photo of this whale's tail as it came up out the water (above) and this other whale totally photobombed my shot:

I think the photobomber (the one below with the bumps) is the curious humpback who came over VERY close to our boat later (you'll see…and you'll see in the video):

So many humpbacks:

And here was the curious guy coming over to check us out (eeeeeek!!):

Here's some video Kevin took with his iPhone (seriously, watch this video):

Oh yeah, and in the distance, a few breaches:

We continued on and near the entrance to Tracy Arm we had to slow down again for more:

Glacier with humpback:

Finally, a clear path:

We continued on down Stephens Passage toward Hobart Bay, and at no time were there ever not humpback blows in several spots on the horizon.

We tied up on the public float in the cove on Entrance Island, and then since it was still so gorgeous out, we decided to go for a little spin in the dinghy to explore.

Marker, marking the shallow reef:

Oh, and hey look, more humpbacks.

Wow, and not just humpbacks, humpbacks bubble feeding! I felt the need to keep reminding Kevin to stay way the heck back because did I mention we were in the DINGHY??

Also, we saw a couple breaches that I did not get photos of because…DINGHY!!

It was spectacular. The light was beautiful out and other than a few moments when we thought we were shut out of our little harbor by more humpbacks, it was a lovely evening ride in Hobart Bay.

Sea lions on their way out to dinner:

Another incredible day in SE Alaska.

Here's today's route, from the sockeye hatchery in Snettisham (which we'll be posting about next) to Entrance Island in Hobart Bay (about 50 nautical miles):

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.

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!

Circling San Juan Island

Laura Domela — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 22:33:04 +0000

Friday Harbor was fogged in pretty good this morning, but it had mostly burned off by about 10:00am. Our plan for today was to circle San Juan Island, look for some Orcas, and then find ourselves a new place to stay tonight. Before we left Friday Harbor we headed up the dock to the seafood market to see if they had anything we might want for dinner tonight.

We picked up a dozen Shigoku oysters and a pound of fresh Sockeye (and an oyster knife for the boat, because…yay oysters!)

As we left the seafood market I heard a splash right next to me and looked down and here was this cute little harbor seal trying to get our attention. She'd slap her right fin on top of the water, in the hope (I assume) that perhaps you picked up a spare something-or-other from the market to share with her.

Inside the market — a cool collection of barnacled bottles:

Back at the boat we untied our lines and headed out. It looked like the currents favored a counter-clockwise route. We waited for this sea plane to depart and then off we went around the island.

We mostly hugged around the edge of San Juan Island, but the fog was back until after we got clear around the north end. We probably had a 1/4 to 1/2 a mile visibility but it was great practice for us. We know to be cautious, and we carefully watched radar and scanned the radio and were always aware of the other vessels even before we could see 'em.

And just like that, it cleared up!

Lime Kiln Lighthouse:

We got down around the south west end of San Juan Island and started hearing orca reports on the radio from the whale watching boats. We continued on around and got to see a whole bunch of orcas! (All I have with me is my Fuji, so these are cropped in quite a bit. Next time: long lens!)

Even the Victoria Clipper slowed down for a bit to watch whales:

We just hung out there for a while watching the whales, and then decided to head to Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island for the evening. I called ahead and they gave us a slip assignment while we were still about an hour out.

Fisherman Bay has a shallow and winding entrance that could be a bummer if you weren't paying attention because there are some very shallow mud flats. All you have to do is follow the channel markings (we also took advantage of the "Mariner's Eye" view on our Garmin — very helpful!)

Here we are at our new spot for tonight:

The mooring here at Islands Marine Center was 45 bucks ($9 more than Friday Harbor), and comes with electricity, water, and fast Wi-Fi. We're gonna need to get good at the whole anchoring and mooring buoy thing! Once we have our solar panels, inverter, and new mobile Wi-Fi router installed, we'll be less dependent on services. It's nice to have 'em for now though as we're learning how it all works.

All-in-all we cruised for 6 hours today and we loved every minute of it! Here's our route:

And here's the Lopez Island sunset from the top deck of the boat: