San Juan Island by Boat
by chris cunningham
Special guest Mom The Blogger…
What a beautiful day on the water!!! Left the slip at 9:05 and headed south to Cattle Pass in search of – orcas! The water was calm and no fog!!!! Quite different than yesterday. Not a lot of boats out. Cattle Pass was even calm and based on our Current Chart it should have been. Passing through the pass, we headed for whale rocks just off of Lopez Island. Came upon many Stellar Sea Lions and Chris began to snap pics! Lots of activity in the water. Phil says they live there because it is named “Salmon Banks” and has an abundance of salmon there. This is also a point where the orcas are often seen. Chris caught a great pic of a sea lion catching his dinner. The sea lion had the fish in his mouth, snapped it in two and threw it in the air. Chris caught the shot with the fish in the sea lion’s mouth!!! See pic…………Phil says he sent it to “fishy heaven”! We saw seals, dolphin, and cormorants. Chris snapped a great shot of several cormorants sitting on the buoy. Started listening to the whale boat channel on the radio, but no one was responding. We headed north up the coast of San Juan. Cruised and spotted the water for whales and any other critters that we might see, however, no whales in sight today. Wonder where they go…………….?????
Once we passed the lighthouse, headed for Mosquito Pass into Roche Harbor. The current was with us and was a pretty journey that took us into Spieden Channel. Reports on the radio of a minke whale up on the east side of Waldron Island, but still few boats talking. In the channel on the way back to Friday Harbor, the water was still calm, with a few tidal currents. As we approached Friday Harbor, Phil spotted The Pardys to the port side of us. Chris got a great shot of them with Lyn looking through her binoculars. As we pulled into the slip, our neighbor Brian and a couple of his friends came over to help take our lines as we came into the slip…a welcoming party!
Phil washed the boat off and Chris and I headed for the laundry and market. Barbecued hamburgers and corn and was actually able to sit outside to eat tonight.. seems it has been too cold or rainy the last few days to eat out. After dinner, Chris went to take some pics and I went up to a marimba concert that was happening in the park. To cap the night off, (which was cold by then ) we went up to get some ice cream!!!!! Cold—but good!
Was a GREAT day on the water!! Got to see lots of wildlife and was fun this evening viewing the pics that Chris had taken. When we get the boat to CA, want to pick three or four (which will be hard) frame them and put them in the boat to remind us of the beautiful sights of San Juan Island.
~Mom
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