Humpback whale BCX1383 “Glacier” passes Friday Harbor and J pod in Boundary Pass

May 24, 2022 – Another exciting, memorable day on the water for us – today we met a new to us humpback whale. We identified it as BCX1383 “Glacier” after comparing our photos to the tail flukes in the Salish Sea Humpback catalogue. The humpback was first spotted north of Pt Caution heading down San Juan Channel surfacing about every 5 minutes with 2-3 breaths before sinking back down in the water. It was fighting the flood tide. Upon reaching Reid Rock, the whale milled in the current over the rock for quite some time and then turned around to head back north. After playfully picking up some floating driftwood bits on her back she seemed to wake up with a long series of tail lobs. After all the excitement we broke off to check out some other sights and get some sailing in. We’d also like to note that the whale looked skinny to us.

There was a pair of bald eagles in the nest on Flattop Island, and the nesting pigeon guillemots have returned to the cliff on the north side. Dozens of harbor seals were hauled out on White Rock accompanied by a pair of bald eagles. We had plans to circumnavigate Waldron Island, but as we neared Skipjack Island we saw a post about Southern Resident orcas from J pod in Boundary Pass not far from us on the Canadian side of the border. Many of the whales had been moving quickly west and we could see some distant fins through the binos. One whale, J27, was trailing the others and we were in awe watching him surface over a mile away while listening to his exhales travel over the water. Magical. While moving on towards Ripple Island the unexpected rains came and we brought out the umbrellas. New Channel was peaceful and serene as we drifted by new kelp forests, sleeping harbor seals, eagles above their nests, and black oystercatchers. Good winds gave us a great sail towards Friday Harbor.