A Day of Whales and Wonders: A Memorable PNW Adventure

Hayden, an avid sailor and marine enthusiast, embarked on a day-sail adventure with a family from church, hoping to recreate the magic of a recent Humpback whale sighting. On a hot and windless day, they ventured out to pull crab pots, yielding a bounty of big Dungeness crabs and spotting shy Harbor porpoises. The real excitement began when they encountered a pod of Orcas, captivating everyone with their playful displays and close encounters. From crabbing and sailing to whale watching and sea otter sightings. Read on for a glimpse into Hayden's unforgettable day on the water.

Whales and Wonders in the Pacific Northwest
By Hayden Watson 

I invited a family from church to go out to pull my crab pots and enjoy a day sail this past Sunday afternoon.  I was hoping I might see the Humpback whale that I saw the day before.  We headed straight out to the pots on a pretty hot and windless day under the 'Iron Genny'.  The pots yielded up 15 very nice, big hard-shell Dungeness, most of which were well over the 6” minimum size.  

As we were pulling the pots, we saw a pair of Harbor porpoises which are very shy and seldom seen very close.  Mount Baker was a reflection in Crescent Harbor and there was not a breath of wind to be seen anywhere.  We briefly considered dropping the anchor while the pots continued to soak but it was miserably hot down below for us non-heat-tolerant Pacific Northwesterners, so the decision was made to head back to the marina to clean our bounty and find someplace cooler for the rest of the afternoon.  

After motoring about a mile towards the marina, a tiny breeze started to build with 3-kts true showing on the anemometer.  When asked if they still wanted to sail, my guests suggested ice cream at Coupeville, so the sails were set from a beat into Penn Cove.  On the way towards Penn Cove, I saw another C30 and circled over by him in hopes of a bit of a race but they were headed dead down wind towards completely calm water, so we abandoned that idea for the allure of fresh baked waffle cones.

As we were entering the Cove, I looked over to see if my friend's 65’ Aerorig was on its mooring at Snatelum Point, and briefly saw a black shape in the water and said, “I think we have whales”.  That brought everyone out for the show.  My friend’s son is an avid amateur photographer and they had been driving all over Whidbey Island chasing every reported whale sighting for the past 6-months and were always just a few minutes too late.  

He promptly sang out “It’s Orcas!” so I eased the sheets to head over that way.  I sailed to a point about 600-yards west of them and hove-to to watch the show.  The pod consisted of one large male who was scouting ahead and a female with a yearling café and a very nearly newborn calf.  The calf was tiny and still had the red coloration on the white belly patch from the placenta which is only visible for a few days after birth. 

We were treated to synchronized Spy Hops and some very nice tail slaps.  We watched some of the cutest little jumps and splashes from the newborn calf.  It reminded me of watching a newborn colt on his first trip to the pasture. 

We watched a kayaker experience a close encounter of the Orca Kind with the female and yearling sliding by her close enough to touch.  That caused a cheer from the hundred or so people on the beach.  My young photographer friend got several great closeup shots of the kayaker with her two new close friends.  After the Orcas moved on, we sailed over to her and got her email so we could send her “her new favorite photograph”.  She said, “You don’t realize how big and powerful they are until you are close enough to Feel their spray and Smell their breath.”

After they swam past us at Long point, they started heading west toward the head of Penn Cove and suddenly ice cream was not nearly so tempting.  We motored up the center of the cove until we got to the Mussel beds.  We then hove-to again and waited.  A boater is not allowed to approach a Transient Orca pod closer than 300-yards but if they approach you, it is fine.  We just drifted and hoped they would swim by close enough to see.  As it turned out, we happened to be right at the meetup spot of two different pods. 

The 4-orca pod we had seen earlier came in from the east and another pod of at least 7 came in from the northwest corner of the cove.  When they came together is was like the 4-th of July family picnic with much jumping, splashing and general showing off.  They even enjoyed an afternoon snack of seal as evidenced by the boil of bright red water a few boat-length of our bow.  They were close enough that we could see the picnic meal being passed around to the younger members of the family.  We had several swim past our boat on their backs with their white belly’s showing beneath the clear water.

After about an hour at that spot, we spotted the Swiftsure which is a large high-speed jet powered whale watching boat with about 150 eager paying customers crowded on the observation decks. It headed toward the north shore of the Cove about a mile from where the Orcas were located.  About that time, one of the big males gave a mighty sail slap right in front of us and all of the Orcas started swimming straight for the Swiftsure.  It was like the tail slap said, “Alright everyone, it’s Showtime!”

We had been with them for over two hours, so we decided to let the Swiftsure have them without us and besides, there was a pretty big flotilla heading towards it because the locals track the whale watchers on AIS so the word was out.  We swapped emails with another boat near us to swap some nice photos of each other’s boats with the whales in the foreground.

We had a nice 4-knot breeze blowing back towards where our crab pots were soaking so we decided that a 5-mile spinnaker run would be a great way to get back to the pots so up went the kite.  Given the light breeze, the best course was to sail at a higher wind angle [which just so happened to send us directly over to where the Swiftsure]  . We reached over to a few boat lengths from the Swiftsure and gybed onto a course which was parallel to the one taken by the Orcas. 

They were in their prime with much jumping, tail slapping, spy-hopping and general Orca entertainment.  Every time I have been around them in the wild, I have found that they do the most “stuff” when they have an audience.  They all seem to be card carrying members of the Orca Entertainment Guild and only perform for an audience.  Makes me wonder what sort of arrangement the commercial whale watchers have with their management.

The pots yielded up several more nice big crabs so we headed for the marina figuring that the fun was over.  But wait, we weren’t done yet.  As we entered the channel, I saw what I thought was a seal but on second look it was a pair of sea otters.  I yelled “Otters!” and everyone came out on deck.  It turned out to be a whole family of otters with maybe a dozen all swimming together. 

What a great finish to the day.  Harbor seals, harbor porpoises, otters and orcas all in one afternoon less than 5-miles from my slip.

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