Humpbacks and an amazing minke encounter

07-02-22

Anacortes Location

Our morning trip began as we crossed Rosario Strait for Thatcher Pass. We cruised through Harney Channel and south through San Juan Channel. We stopped by Whale Rocks and found several Steller sea lions hauled out, warming up. We pushed west toward Canada and found our first whale of the day! It was a humpback whale! It happened to be BCX1658 "Bullet." We had some nice looks as she headed south for the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We had to turn to head back toward home port, but not before Captain Drew found us some incredible minke whales! They were lunge feeding, decimating bait balls right and left! One of the minke whales lunged right through a bait ball, mouth gaping open, baleen showing, toward the boat. It was incredible! As the action died down, we continued around the south end of Lopez Island. That is where we found our second humpback of the day! It ended up being our old friend, BCY1022 "Scratchy." Scratchy was swimming in circles at the south end of Rosario Strait. We had some nice looks before we headed home to Anacortes.

Our afternoon trip started out with us traveling south out of Burrows Bay. We went through Deception Pass as the flood tide was raging through the pass. It was amazing to see. There were several harbor seals on Strawberry Island. We cruised back out and approached Davidson Rock where we caught up with our humpback whale friend, BCX1022 "Scratchy." Our whale was just cruising against the tide. We saw its fluke several times as Scratchy went on its deep dives. We started to push toward the west to continue our search, but the waves started building and Captain Drew decided to turn and take us through Castle Rock and Lopez Island. It was beautiful. We found two mature bald eagles on Castle Rock. We cruised toward the number 2 can of Lawson Reef where we found three Steller sea lions hauled out. We were then able to catch back up with Scratchy for some more great looks. We hung out with our humpback friend until another whale watching boat got on scene and we cruised toward Burrows Island where we found a couple more bald eagles perched in the trees, searching for dinner. What a great day on the water!