Kelly | M/V Sea Lion | March 27th, 2026 | 12:30pm
With an (almost) full boat of passengers on this gorgeous sunny spring day, we took a left out of Friday Harbor a pointed north up San Juan Channel. We Stopped briefly to enjoy the sleepy sea lions lounging on Spieden Island's Green Point. We began slowly cruising up Spieden islands west side, enjoying looks at numerous bald eagles and Mouflon Sheep. Rounding over the top of Roche Harbor and into the Haro Strait we were treated to crystal clear views of the Olympic mountain range and even Mt. Rainer (hazy) in the distance! The water was flat calm making it very easy to spot exhales unobstructed by wind, rain and fog. We didn't have to wait too much longer to see that very first exhale! Hot steam shot up from the water like a smoke stack, almost 15 feet high at a half mile off the bow. We slowed the boat down to under 7 knots, as we approached outside of 100 yards This Humpback was identified as Gretzky aka BCX1800, first spotted in 2017. This young humpbacks gender is still unknown. Without a good look at the mammary slits on the underbelly or observing a whale traveling with calf, it's incredibly difficult to sex them. We watched as this whale slowly made it's way up Haro Strait, likely feeding on our abundance of small schooling fish along the way. Not but 10 minutes after leaving scene with the humpback, two exhales appeared in the distance! Turns out... an additional two humpbacks were in the area! Why humpbacks occasionally travel in pairs is still a complete mystery to us. Perhaps they're lonely? Old Friends? Crush?? We might never have know with 100% certainty. These humpbacks appeared bigger than our solo traveler and were later identified as Split Fluke (BCX1068) and Zig Zag (BCX1193), quite the interesting pair! These whales are from different migratory breeding sites. Split Fluke migrates from Mexico and Zig Zag from Hawaii. Perhaps two ladies catching up on regional gossip!? We ended our trip by curving back over the northern top of San Juan Island slipping back into San Juan Channel, enjoying every moment of this gorgeous spring day.
To see photos from this tour click here:
https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/32726-AA