A minke encounter by Pt Disney plus a sea lion vs an octopus

October 4, 2019 – The colors were popping in the forest as we hugged the San Juan coastline traveling up to Pt Caution. Many pairs of ancient murrelets were hanging out near Yellow Island, and we spotted several bald eagles throughout the day. Harbor porpoise were plentiful south of Flattop Island giving us several close passes as we drifted quietly.

Circling around to the north side of Flattop Island we heard a report of a pair of minke whales off Sandy Pt, Waldron Island. We headed that direction and sailed with one minke as he/she traveled near large groups of diving birds including cormorants, common murres, loons and auklets. There were loads of gulls in the area, too, some of which were busy in various bait balls looking for a meal. After several looks at the minke we watched as it traveled away from us towards Flattop Island, and we decided to sail into Pt Disney for a closer look.

Cruising along the Waldron shoreline we saw a large group of harbor seals resting on the shoreline, and up ahead near Mail Bay a steller sea lion was thrashing a giant Pacific octopus around. It was quite the scene watching the big guy throwing around the octopus with tremendous energy and big splashes. When it appeared he was finished we crossed Presidents Channel as quickly as we could to try to be in the lee of Orcas Island as the rains were coming. We admired the steep tree covered hillsides with the many shades of green and prepared ourselves for the rain showers heading our way.

Our passengers were amazing and didn’t let the rain get them down. Dressed with proper rain gear we enjoyed the beautiful scenery with hot drinks in hand as we continued on our sail back to Friday Harbor sharing stories along the way.