Puffins at Smith Island, a Minke whale, and Orcas T123’s

June 20, 2026 – Today we had a plan to go on a search for puffins at the request of passengers on board. We had a great sail south in San Juan Channel tacking back and forth on the ebb current. The dramatic scenery along the southwestern tip of Lopez Island is just spectacular and a total favorite of ours. All the nooks and crannies, many with bald eagle nests. The active nest in McArdle Bay has a small chick barely visible in the nest. Castle Rock looks so majestic as we take the narrow cut between it and the Lopez coast. From there we turned south for Smith Island. This area is a great place for birding. We saw lots of tufted puffins, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, cormorants, and gulls. After turning back north we crossed over the bottom tip of MacArthur Bank and Salmon Bank. Here we found a minke whale who gave us some good views. There was a group of orcas (the T123’s) southbound in San Juan Channel so we made our way back across the channel to see the Steller sea lions before getting on scene. As they approached the strong flood current in Cattle Pass they flipped direction and moved north quickly along the Lopez Island shoreline. We had some gorgeous views as they surfaced in warm evening light. We left them near the bottom of Upright Channel and had a fast sail back to the harbor. A perfect ending to a perfect day.