September 3, 2023 – After leaving Friday Harbor we moved south rather quickly with the hopes to intercept a pod of orcas including the one and only T63 “Chainsaw” with presumable mother, T65, and T46C2. They were pretty far south of Lopez Island moving west and we met the whales approximately 2 miles east of the RA buoy. Conditions were interesting with hazy skies and gray reflective waters making photographs of the orcas look almost like black and white. On our way back we spotted some birds circling near the bottom of Salmon Bank. Suddenly a humpback whale lunged up beneath them. It’s the same humpback we’ve been seeing that we believe to be BCZ0345 “Victory”. It never fluked for us so we couldn’t confirm with tail photos, but dorsal fin looks like a match to the catalogue. We also saw bald eagles, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, cormorants, common murres and lots of gulls.
Route map 9/3/23
Steller sea lions on Whale Rocks, San Juan Islands
Steller sea lions on Whale Rocks, San Juan Islands
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”, born 1978
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”
Biggs/Transient orca T46C2
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”
Biggs/Transient orca T46C2
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw”
Biggs/Transient orca T46C2
Biggs/Transient orca T63 “Chainsaw” swimming beside mom, T65
Biggs/Transient orca T65
Biggs/Transient orca T65 with T46C2
Biggs/Transient orca T46C2 with T65
Humpback whale BCZ0345 “Victory” near Salmon Bank
Humpback whale BCZ0345 “Victory”
Humpback whale BCZ0345 “Victory”
Humpback whale BCZ0345 “Victory”
Gulls feeding on a bait ball
Humpback whale BCZ0345 “Victory”
Cattle Pt Lighthouse, San Juan Island
Cormorants nesting on Goose Island
Harbor seals on Goose Island with Cattle Pt Lighthouse, San Juan Island
Pair of bald eagles
Harbor seals hauled out
Sailing around Turn Island