5-17-13 J Pod Kerfuffles!

Friday, May 17th
...with J pod not around yesterday and a large group of transient orca (also known as Bigg's orca) seen in Rosario Strait, when word came of whales seen from the morning ferry there was no guessing on who it might be...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters...up over the top and down past Friday Harbor heading toward the waters off the south end of Lopez Island...we slowed for some harbor porpoise and the most unusual thing happened - one of the harbor porpoise began surfing the stern wake!...not a common sight to see, at least for me...
...the whales were already at the bottom of Lopez and appeared to be coming across...the first group we saw clearly was Granny J-2 with Samish J-14 and her family...Granny had already gone under by the time I took this image...

...Blackberry J-27 was doing lazy pec slaps...

...some of the kids playful behavior...

...as we headed for the harbor we saw some of the J16s...I got lucky to catch this of Mike J-26 as he made a big lunge...

...during the afternoon they had moved offshore and began coming up island late in the day...and they were barely moving...Granny was up ahead of the others by at least a 1/2 mile...small groups began slowly coming up and when they were all together they began moving up island in a resting pattern, which, to me, is one of the most beautiful things you can see out there...

...the tide chart said that it was about a 6' flood over about an 8 hour period...Capt. Justin commented at one point that we were moving at about 1 to 1.5 knots...
...Granny in the lead as they pass Lime Kiln Pt. State Park and the lighthouse...

...a short distance past the light there was a kerfuffle ...a couple dorsal fins going the opposite way...two spyhops, they moved down island briefly and then turned back and continued going up island...

 ...

...Granny at County Park...

...the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds...there was another kerfuffle and then a bit further on a rainbow appeared at the point to the south of County Park...

...the whales continued to move north...

...hope they don't follow this cruise ship to Alaska :)