07-06-22: Anacortes Location
AM Trip
Our morning trip started with a cruise down to the Olympic Peninsula. Sea conditions were calm with plentiful sunshine and a light breeze. The water was so flat and glassy that we were able to see several harbor porpoises feeding in the tide lines on our way out. We almost made it to the Point Wilson Lighthouse when we came across a humpback whale! The humpback surfaced at rhythmic intervals every 7 minutes, and we were lucky enough to get a few looks at the fluke before it disappeared on a deeper dive. After spending time with the humpback whale, we stopped at Smith Island to look for some Tufted Puffins. We spotted five Tufted Puffins swimming and diving for fish around the kelp forest off Smith Island. On our way back to the marina, we stopped at a buoy marker to see three lazy Stellar sea lions soaking in the sunshine.
PM Trip
We started south on our whale watching cruise, with slightly choppier conditions due to winds picking up from the west. We came across a lone male killer whale in the Straight of Juan de Fuca traveling quickly in zig zagging patterns. We watched the killer whale for a while, then began traveling further west in the Straight of Juan de Fuca until we reached Constance Bank off Vancouver Island. Whale spouts started appearing all around our boat and suddenly we were surrounded by humpback whales. Everywhere we looked we saw spouts and so many lunge feeding humpback whales. It was amazing to see the massive animals breaking the surface of the water with their mouths wide open, straining though thousands of gallons of water to obtain as many bait fish as possible. It was an amazing encounter, and we were sad to have to turn around to head back to the marina.
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