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Spur of the Moment Whale Watching

Posted on March 13, 2018March 13, 2018 By Tom 1 Comment on Spur of the Moment Whale Watching
Photography, Washington Sabbatical

Quintessential Washington

We are finally getting some spring-like weather here in the PNW. With sunshine and warmer temperatures we’ve been wanting to get out and about a bit more. I had gotten an e-mail with a discount coupon for whale watching out of Anacortes. We had taken a tour with the company several years ago, and decided that we would take advantage of the coupon and head out with Island Adventures once again.

Our tour was scheduled to depart at 11:30. We decided to head into Anacortes early and grab a good breakfast at Calico Cupboard. This worked out quite well, and the large breakfast meant that we wouldn’t have to eat lunch on the boat. We found the Island Adventures location, checked in, then headed over to the marina.

The last time we went out with Island Adventures was seven years ago, back in 2011. Back then we cruised on the Island Explorer 3 and saw a lot of very active orcas. Now they have a new, larger boat, the Island Explorer 5, and we were hoping to see gray whales. We admired it as we wandered along the Cap Sante Marina.

Island Explorer 5
Island Explorer 5-002

At the end of the marina is a memorial to mariners from Anacortes lost at sea. Names from 1916 through present day are listed. One unique feature is a set of sailor’s knots hanging from the edges of the memorial.

Mariner's Memorial
Mariner's Memorial-001
Mariner's Memorial-002

Just out from that is a beautiful sculpture entitled the “Lady of the Sea.” The sculpture depicts a woman and her child awaiting the safe return of the sailors.

Lady of the Sea
Lady of the Sea-001

We headed back down to the dock and got in line to board. Captain Scott and the crew addressed us, we posed for a selfie in front of the boat, then sought our seats. We decided to try the second level at the front of the boat.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-24
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-25

We got underway, heading out of the marina and past Cap Sante. Lots of folks were up on the overlook, taking advantage of the nice weather. From there we headed up Guemes Channel.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-29
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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-34
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-35

As we continued down the channel we picked up speed and very quickly the front of the boat became unbearable with the wind. We found more comfortable accommodations inside and toward the back of the boat. At least from back there we had views of Mount Baker.

Whale Watching with Island Adventures-36
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-37
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-41

Our route took us up through the Rosario Strait along the eastern edge of Orcas Island. We paused a couple of times to view birds and eagles, but no whales. We had spectacular views of the Canadian Coastal Range, including the split peaks of Golden Eagle.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-45
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-47
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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-62
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On our 2011 trip we headed past this point and on up into Canadian waters out from Vancouver. Naturally, we were quite surprised when the boat turned around and headed back south without seeing any whales. We were wondering if we would be able to cash in on the “whale guarantee.” The guarantee says that if you don’t see whales you can come back on another tour for free. I like boat rides like this, whales or not, so part of me was hoping that we could do another trip. I bet many tourists from out of town couldn’t take advantage of the guarantee.

As it turned out, Captain Scott had been in touch with a tug captain that had spotted orcas further south, and that’s where we were headed.

Captain Scott

Just off the west side of Guemes Island we spotted the whales. A Washington State Ferry passed on the other side of them.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-83
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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-87

We watched a pod of five orcas as they hunted between Guemes and Fidalgo. As we watched other tour boats from Victoria joined us. Looking at them I was glad we were on the boat we were on.

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I moved up to the upper deck to get shots of the whales. Laura joined me for a bit, but up that high you could really feel the movement of the waves and she decided to go back down. I stayed to take more photos. The captain tried to align the boat for the perfect Washington State shot with Mount Baker, a ferry, and a whale all together.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-126
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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-130
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With my long lens I couldn’t get all three in one frame. Laura had more success with her phone. I had to settle for Photoshopping a whale into my shot. That Photoshopped image is at the top of this post. I stayed on the top deck about five minutes too long and had to join Laura down below. Fortunately, we took action in time and neither of us got sick.

Whale Watching with Island Adventures-136

Actually, the view was better from down below. We were closer to the whales seeing them from straight on rather than from above. I took more shots from down there. I also took photos of the Burrows Bay Light House. I had kayaked out to the light house in 2010.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-142
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-143
Bowen Bay Lighthouse
Bowen Bay Lighthouse-001

Since we were so close to Anacortes and our home base, our captain decided to let us see some other things. We rode over to a set of rocks where seals and sea lions were enjoying the sunshine and staying out of the way of the orcas.

Harbor Seals-001
Harbor Seals-003
Sea Lions
Sea Lions-003
Harbor Seals-004
Sea Lions-005
Harbor Seals-005

But we weren’t done. Our next stop was one place I’ve been wanting to explore a long, long time. The tides were right, so our captain took us through Deception Pass and under the bridge.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-166
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Deception Pass-005
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Deception Pass-008
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Deception Pass-015

On the other side of the pass we could see the strong currents whipping around the rocks. One hot shot on a fishing boat must have thought he was in a rodeo as he stood on the bow of his boat as it zipped through the currents.

Deception Pass-016
Deception Pass-018
Deception Pass-006
Hot Shot
Deception Pass-021

We pulled around toward Canoe Pass and for a moment I thought we might be going back that way. However, it was just a detour so that we could see the opening to an old mine high up in the cliff.

Deception Pass-020
Deception Pass-023
Deception Pass-003
Deception Mine
Deception Mine-001

We came back through the main pass and headed back to where we saw the whales. I switched from my 200-500mm lens to my 18-300mm lens. It would still give me decent telephoto range but would also allow wider shots.

The whales were hanging at out Williamson Rocks, just south of Allan Island and west of Fidalgo Island. I had also kayaked out to these rocks in 2010. The orcas were definitely hunting out here. Finally one of them breached, and the captain treated that as a finale for our outing.

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Whale Watching with Island Adventures-231
Whale Watching with Island Adventures-230

The trip back didn’t take long. It was a great trip, but really wish that we had seen larger whales than orcas. I’m sure that we’ll do another one of these, or at the least another ferry trip in the coming months.

Here’s the route for our trip.

Whale Watching

One final note. Captain Scott Jacobson did an excellent job finding the whales and trying to line up the perfect shots for us. Tyler Reed was our naturalist and he did a great job…as long as he was talking about whales and wildlife. It was clear that he was a biologist, and not a geologist. He described Mount Baker as an “active” volcano instead of dormant. Active means that it’s currently erupting. He also pronounced “Gneiss” as “niece” with a long “e” rather than a long “i”. Oh well. Tyler did write up a blog post on the Island Adventures website that does a better job of describing what we saw. It was a great tour, and I highly recommend this group. They can be pricey, but it’s worth it.

Quintessential Washington

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One thought on “Spur of the Moment Whale Watching”

  1. Ellen Plews says:
    March 15, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    I think my geology instructor pronounced it “niece”, but that was in Minnesota, where we pronounce the article “a” as “uh”. Your trip sounded like fun even if you only saw little orcas. Sorry to be envious.

    Reply

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