September 21, 2021 – Cetacean trifecta! Minkes, a gray whale and orcas! The gray whale is catalogued as CRC30, and it was first identified in 1983. Also seen near the San Juans in 2016. Cascadia Research Collective was really excited to see our photos of the gray whale! And, the orca pod we saw were the T18’s. We didn’t think we’d make it to the gray whale and almost gave up. It was a couple miles ahead of us and no boats were on scene, but we kept on our mission. Barbara spotted the faint blow and we were able to get in the zone and on scene to get some beautiful views. It’s not often we get the chance to see gray whales so we were very excited even if we had to go almost to Victoria to see it. Two of the four orcas in the pod were trailing the gray whale traveling pretty close to the same route. We got to see T18 and T19C while T19 and T19B were about a mile or so to the south. We found a minke on our way to find with the gray whale and on our way back to Cattle Pass.
Mt Baker
Sailing by Turn Island State Park
Momma raccoon with babies
Harbor seals hauled out
Belted kingfisher
Harbor seals relaxing
Purple ochre sea star
Sea lions, Whale Rocks and Olympic Mountains
Harbor seal and bull kelp
Steller sea lions
Steller sea lions coming to check us out
Steller sea lions goofing around
Sea lion pup
King of the island
Minke whale
Gray whale CRC30
Gray whale CRC30
Gray whale CRC30
Gray whale CRC30
Gray whale CRC30
Gray whale CRC30
Gray whale with ‘rainblow’
Gray whale, rainblow, and Mt Baker
T18
T18 with T19C
T18 with T19C
T18 with Discovery Island Lighthouse
Cattle Pt Lighthouse
Sailing wing on wing
Minke whale
Minke whale with a distant Mt Rainier
Sundog
Sunset in the San Juans
Sunset in the San Juans
Harbor seals on the rocks in the sunset
Route map 9-21-21