We departed at 1935 this evening on Five Star's Fastcat with some cruise ship passengers lucky enough to join us for a gorgeous sighting of J pod as they travelled slowly north through the islands towards Vancouver. We had to travel quite a ways to catch up with them, had a brief sighting, but it was totally worth it! We had a beautiful sighting of J pod crossing Boundary Pass from Turn Point on Stuart Island, Washington State to the waters off South Pender Island in BC.
Looking East through Boundary Pass to Mount Baker at Turn Point, Stuart Island, WA
We reached the whales at about 2040 and found they were in a social mode with lots of breaches, taillobs and even some vocals in the air. One of the whales even did a raspberry i.e. a farting sound, in the air...very entertaining! Due to the dusky light it was difficult to see their individual markings but I was able to identify J31, Tsuchi (a 14 year old female), J34, Doublestuff (a 11 year old male) and a younger whale which appeared to be his younger sibling J38, Cookie (a 6 year old juvenile) (Center For Whale Research ID page)
Members of J pod travelling north from Turn Pt to Pender Island with Mount Baker in the background
J pod members travelling north in Boundary Pass
Nice evening with J pod in Boundary Pass
At about 2045 we had to leave the whales as they continued travelling north up Swanson Channel. Fortunately, we were treated to an amazing sunset as we travelled back down Haro Strait toward Victoria! We arrived back to the harbour just before 2200. This was definitely one of the best trips of the season...short but VERY sweet with amazing social whales and a gorgeous sunset!
Awesome sunset in Boundary Pass!!
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