Ever since I can recall I have had this love/fascination with Killer Whales that began with going to Sea World numerous times growing up. I remember in my English class my junior year of high school we had to write a paper on something we wanted to learn more about. I chose Killer Whales and once I learned more about them my love grew. I have a mental bucket list and seeing a Killer Whale in the wild was on that list. Last year I got to check that off my list. When we found out that Adam's cousin Samantha was getting married in Seattle in June we decided to make it an extended trip to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. I asked Adam if we could go on a boat to see Killer Whales in the wild and he said that we could look into and depending on the price we might be able to do it. I found this website and immediately got excited. It was a reasonable price so we jumped on it. I remember after booking our reservation I couldn't believe my dream was coming true. I think we booked it a few months in advance. I had to wait such a long time I could hardly contain my excitement. When Sunday, June 17, 2012 finally arrived we had to be at the dock at 10 A.M. in Anacortes, Washington about 2 hours away from Seattle in order to check in. We walked down to the dock and waited for the captain to come, he showed up a few minutes later to explain the rules and how they locate the whales. We boarded the boat and since I didn't want to miss a thing I was willing to be a little cold and sit on the upper deck.
{view from the boat before leaving the dock}
Captain Carl was great about explaining what we were looking at and where we were. We saw a bald eagle and some beautiful scenery.
{love the freedom to fulfill dreams}
It took us about an hour and a half to get to the whales. Once Captain Carl told us to keep our eyes peeled for any whale sightings I could feel the anticipation building. Once we spotted a small black dorsal fin off in the distance that was what really got everyone excited.
Captain Carl said that the whale on the far left was a 91 year old female named Granny (J2) from the JPOD. Who looked to be babysitting two younger calfs.
I can't put into words the magic of this moment knowing that my dream had just come true. A moment that I used to daydream about all the time was happening right before my eyes. I never wanted to get off the boat. It got better as the the day went on.
One of the whales spy hopping for us.
The backdrop was stunning and the weather was perfect.
This Whale is named Mike(J26)I believe he was the biggest male in JPOD.
Here are a couple of videos I made from the trip.
They had this book on the boat that had all the whales names, age and what pods they were in. I took a picture of all the whales we had the privilege of seeing that day.
There was a shipmate named Mike that helped out the captain and he also took amazing photos from our trip that are way more professional then mine. I wanted to share the high quality ones that we were able to purchase after the trip.
After every trip Mike the shipmate blogs about each days journey.
This is what he had to say about the spectacular day we had.
Wow! Today was one of those great days on the water. We saw orcas and humpback!
Our trip today took us west toward Canada to find whales. We got a great look at a mature bald eagle on Willow Island. We watched as it flew from the rocks up to a tree branch, and perched there majestically for our folks to see. Also on Willow was a raccoon feeding in the exposed tidal zone that a guest found with his sharp eyes. We watched several groups of harbor porpoise and harbor seals as we continued toward the location of the whales. We soon caught up to JPod orcas as they were heading northbound in Haro Strait. We first spent some time with J19 Shachi and her calf J41 Eclipse. Eclipse was having fun playing with a younger calf, and these two were a blast to watch! Next we cruised over toward J16 Slick and her family. Mike was traveling away from the group at first but soon swam close to mom and his sisters, Alki and Echo. The real thrill was next, as we got a call about the lead group of orcas swimming with a humpback whale!
We got some great looks at L87 Onyx with the humpback just in front of him. We watched the humpback whale go down on a deep dive and bring it's tail out of the water! Onyx stole the show as he did a full cartwheel right in front of the Turn Point Lighthouse! We enjoyed some beautiful, sunny conditions as we made our way east through the heart of the San Juan Islands back to the dock.
-Michael Colahan
The whole experience was truly one magical day! Adam and I will never forget it! I highly recommend this to anyone in or visiting the Seattle area!
