Sailing with J pod and seeing the two newest calves

October 4, 2020 – When we left the dock we had exciting news of our Southern Resident orcas from J pod approaching the westside of San Juan Island. We decided to head south hugging the Lopez Island coastline passing the cormorants and snoozing harbor seals on Shark Reef. Great blue herons stood on the bull kelp beds and harbor seals and bald eagles were near Deadman Island. Steller sea lions were frolicking and mucking about on Whale Rocks and there was one California sea lion resting amongst them.

We crossed over Salmon Bank scanning for minke whales, but unfortunately having some chop on the water made spotting conditions a bit difficult. After scanning for awhile we decided to continue north. The J pod orcas were spread out, some in small groups, as they did the westside shuffle going down island then flipping back north. The first group we spotted included the J19’s (J19, daughter J41 and her two offspring J51 and J58) and the J37’s (J37 with 8 yr old son J49). We were very excited to see the newest J pod member, J58, first discovered after J41 gave birth on September 24th. The calf looked spunky popping his/her head up high almost like a cork as it surfaced between the family members. We saw J36 traveling offshore possibly enroute to join them.

Another playful group was inshore of us including J40, J42, J46, J53 (all females) and the J35’s (J35 with 10 yr old son J47 and second newest J pod member son J57 – born September 4th). The group at first was southbound but flipped to head up island northbound. We sailed parallel getting some distant views enjoying the sounds of their blows. No vocals were heard on our hydrophone today. Both of the new calves have an orange tint where the white pigment is – this is normal and will change as they grow older. J44 came cruising north on our port side traveling north in a hurry, but stopped to play with a piece of kelp dragging it between the tail flukes.

In the distance we saw J38 heading north. Near False Bay several orcas stopped to forage including 29 year old J27. It was great to see such a large male after watching lots of females, juveniles and tiny calves. He really gave our passengers an impression of how big they really can be.

After a really beautiful time sailing in the presence of our beloved orcas, it was time to make tracks for home. With all the orcas to the north of us, we hugged the San Juan coast to find a back eddy as the flood current was against us. A bald eagle flew by landing on Cattle Pt Lighthouse. The sun began set and created a pastel layer under a thick cloud cover above. As we came up the channel towards Turn Island we found several black oystercatchers taking a bath while harbor seals rested on the rocks and a bald eagle watched us sail by from the tree top.