August 30, 2026 – Sailed up to the Wasp Islands, scanning the horizon and listening to our radios for any reports of whales. Following reports of orcas T99’s with T37A4 northbound from Sinclair Island we set a course for Spring Pass and Presidents Channel hoping to meet them over the top of Orcas Island. We hugged the Orcas Island shoreline to find the back eddies against the ebbing current catching views of bald eagles along the way. The orcas, too, were traveling against the ebb and as we rounded Point Doughty we set a course for Matia to meet them. Unfortunately, it looked as though the orcas might round Lummi Island back toward Bellingham Bay, so we drifted through Rolfe Cove on Matia Island admiring the honeycombed sandstone coastline and then set course for Sucia Island. We then heard that the orcas were continuing north, so we made the decision to extend our sail and meet them. We caught up with the orcas near Neptune Beach and sailed alongside as they continued toward Cherry Point. From there we headed back toward Sucia, seeing a Steller sea lion among the harbor seals on Clements Reef. We cut through the fingers of Sucia Island admiring the coastline before turning back toward Orcas Island. We had lovely views across the calm waters toward Skipjack and saw many large groups of common murres and some harbor porpoise. The sunset views became increasingly magical in the mercurial evening light as we sailed down Presidents Channel and headed home to Friday Harbor.
