Long Northwest 2026

We got up super early, packed up, said goodbye to the hogs, and got in the car to catch the boat. Turns out we were running 20 minutes late, so we had to call them to ask if we would make it – they said as long as we were there by 8:50 it would be okay. We booked it as fast as we could, and made it just in time. We arrived to the captain announcing “And here they are!” and got in the last booth available on the boat.

The captain was going over safety procedures, and introduced everyone to the concept of the head, and gave great emphasis that if the head should break – we should not be afraid to tell staff so they can fix it before a cascade of terrible-ness ruined the trip. He introduced Rachel, the resident naturalist and our waitress for the trip. She got right to telling us all about what we might see and how to spot a whale in the distance and told us we were all in it together – don’t keep it to yourself, and don’t worry if you’re wrong – we are here to try. As we were pulling out we spotted some river otters frolicking on the dock next to where the boat has been. They raced under the pilings to hop in the water as I looked back.

Even though I had bought a pair of binoculars at the adventure store, I was sooo happy to see that they provided a nice pair at the table. So after listening to Rachel, Wylder got really excited, as did I, and we looked and looked pretty constantly with the binoculars.

The water was smooth for a bit, and then got increasingly choppy, not too bad but enough that I couldn’t look through the binocs any more and Tula reported feeling a bit queasy. I went to hit the head, and actually hit my head on the door while doing so, which I thought was utterly hilarious, and made way too many only sightly funny jokes back at the table. But then Rachel came by and it was time for our treat – their famous blueberry buckle, for which we immediately said “Yes, please, with hot chocolate too!” Chris got a coffee, and everyone felt a bit better about life. We all decided to make it at home with the recipe we found in the guidebook.

Wylder reports:

W: The river otters were rolling around and wandering on the dock, but I don’t know what they were doing.

Wylder was looking out his binoculars a lot: “I was seeing if I could find a whale fin” Wylder claims his favorite part of whale watching trip was “blueberry buckle, hot chocolate……oh, and whales.” They grey whale was surprising because I thought we just might see orcas, because they greys were out of season. On Friday Harbor I liked that we saw another one of the Puget sound tour boats, and the ferries came in an we watched as the cars went on, and the big trucks went on last. The water was really churning and rushing. When we were on the island I saw anchors and buoys and a big boat replica that I really liked in an art store, mama said we couldn’t take it home because it was too big and made of metal and wood. I don’t know why we couldn’t take metal on the plane. I really liked being on the bow, we had a really nice view. I looked through a little hole, because we couldn’t stand and be in the way of the captain seeing, so I got on my knees and laid down, and looked through the little hole.

After crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca and almost getting to the island, we still had not see anything more than a muur, and some birds, which were fun. I will admit to being quite nervous at this point that we may not see anything! We came upon a bouy with some giant kelp forest around it, and we were lucky enought to spot the head of a solo male sea otter nestled into the kelp. His head, which was just a carmel brown against the dark water of the kelp, was really only spottable with binoulars, but I’m including a picture for you here anyway.

We sailed on, this time towards a rocky outcropping covered with a few penipeds – Sea Lions! We couldn’t stay long at this little island in the middle of the channel, because the water was so rough, we had to move or get pulled in. The kids and I decided to stay out on the bow of the ship. It was populated only by a few others who seemed to enjoy it out there, and had filled up the seating but kids wanted to hang on the rails (much like I did, but that didn’t really do anything for my mama bear anxiety) and we crouched down right at the tip and held on tight. Chris decided to stay in for this moment, but it turned out we had the absoulte right chocie.

Just as we were about to go into the final channel between Friday Harbor and us, the Captain turned the ship around. Rachel made an announcment the they had recived word of some whales nearby! The kids and I watched excitedly as we headed out and started to see some other boats on the horizon. They were all heading towards a central location. Rachel went over some of the guidelines for us again –

We have to stay 200 yards from any sea mammals. We turn off the engines if they get any closer, and this means we can’t turn, so we have to work together to let everyone see. Shorties in the front, so let the kids in front of you.

Note: ORCAS ARE NOT WHALES. They are the largest dolphin. Here is where I shall nerd at you now, and you may learn something you didn’t know already – like how we say it backwards in English, or some general taxanomy, or that did you know there are two kinds of Orcas? Or even how funny it sounds to say orca in german?

That’s when we saw the first Orca break water. They had been spotted hunting a seal – and were all working together. They were a pod of six, including a juvenile about a year old, and a four-ish month old newborn that was still orange!!! I cannot tell you how I gasped and just started weeping, y’all. I was submerged in deep ecastaic and profound joy.

As we approached the pod kept surfacing, both babies glued to mama’s side. We spent I don’t even know how long just staring. That’s when even more magic happend, y’all! They headed towards us – Tula, Wylder, and I were still on the bow of the ship somehow, Chris just a few people over, and they were heading straight for us! The captain turned off the engines, and the WHOLE POD came over – they all surfaced individually and some times close together, over and over again, right under us at the ship. The Captain and Rachel told us over and over how we didn’t know how lucky we are cause that just doesn’t happen. There were I dunno – at least 6 other ships of varying sizes and they chose to come over to us.

Now it was confirmed that before they came over to us, they had caught the seal, so some of this was family eating behavior. It wasn’t long until we saw some spyhopping (when they stick just their heads out of the water, thought to be a way for them to look around above water, but not confirmed it’s not just celebratory fun) as well as some tiny little baby tails coming out of the water. I am posting a silly amount of videos here, because I couldn’t take you along in my pocket, but please know that if I could have, I would. Best I can do, dear readers, is to take video with our sci-fi age mini computers I happened to be carrying in my gifted felted purse, full of love and nerdy nature notes.

OMG WEREN’T THOSE AMAZING VIDEOS! I hope you felt like you were there. I have absolutely no idea how long we watched those whales, and I couldn’t have stopped, but they did have to deliver us to our Friday Harbor lunch (albeit late for good reason, as Rachel said). So off we went, and Rachel gave us some great info on the pod and how to spot them, and how to look them up on line.

This was a pod of Biggs Orcas – T46b3a – They name them by letter and number so this was pod T46, b was the second born to that, then her 3 (third born) and a (her first born) which was the new baby. Here’s a website to look up more: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/meet-the-matrilines/t46s

The females are pregnant for 17-18 months! Which means they typically go 3-4 years between birth, which makes it be a 3-4% growth rate for the species per year. Although she said this pod has a couple of prolific producers, one mother had 4 babies in 8 years, which is super close together. They are orangey colored for the first year, and even have fetal folds (how they tell if they baby is pretty new) for up to a few weeks after birth. The newest baby was born this March-ish they think. The calf seminal rate (living to adulthood) is about 50%, but higher for this particular pod. Males have a life expectancy of 40ish years, and females about 60ish years, but they do have males alive into their 60s and females into their 80s. And SOMETIMES they even go missing for years, like one went missing for 13 years from a pod AND THEN JUST SHOWED BACK UP. Mysteries of the ocean y’all.

Then we looked at some menus for the island, and watched enraptured as Rachel and the Captain worked seamlessly to dock the boat. We got off, and immediately slowed the whole line down, because we were looking over in the water at the edge of the dock to see what sea life was clinging on. We instantly found a decorator crab, and some tube worms, as well as lots of sea lettuce. We marveled how we could see the bottom, much like Barton Springs.

We decided on the closest little cafe, and grabbed some avocado toasts named for the surrounding islands, and a big ol beet smoothie (did not taste like beet tho), and I splurged on a matcha. We purused the little cafe gift shop, fell in love with some books (me), some stickers(tula and wylder), some earrings (Tula, I told her we could get them on our way out – bad move they were gone!), and some stuffies (wylder). And then we decided to tour the town.

We went into a nice little art shop, where they had postcards from everytown in the US somehow, and Tula and Chris purused those a bit. Wylder and I went to look at art prints, and then he got distracted by the aforementioned tackle, anchors, boats, and general acoutrement of the boating world. Funny enough, he always asks my mom if he can have her pulleys and boat stuff too. He really tried to convince me we could mail this giant wooden and metal replica of a ship back when I told him it wouldn’t fit on the plane. I bought a print and a magnet, and almost fell for a beautiful inlaid box.

We walked on to another print shop, walked past the store of one of my favorite linen brands, and then happened into an artists gallery. He was working on this beautful peice a woman had commisioned after hiking the island, and magically snapping a picture of a fox against the meadow, beach, and sunset. It was lovely! He and his wife are an artist couple, and their work was beautiful and only occasionaly collabroative, and very much reminded me of Chris’ Aunt and Uncle who are amazing professional artists themselves. I couldn’t take any pictures – as they had just had a bunch of their work stolen – but please know it was breathtaking.

We went into a bookstore, and couldn’t pass up getting a few of those — Wylder walked away with the largest book of Mad Libs I’ve ever encountered and it has been so fun doing them since! We gave money to a busker who was playing and managing a funny dancing chicken on the street corner, and then went to stuff our faces with ice cream before we got back on the boat.

On the way back, we went the long way around, instead of heading straight back, – over the top of Lopez Island, between Lopez and Shaw, and then Lopez and Blakely. They said they wanted to check out a reliable spot that had been home to a lounging grey whale for the past 6-8 weeks. Gray whales are out of season, meant to be swimming north at this time, but they said that sometimes whales just choose to stay or not go as far north. This one staying in the sound year round is becoming more common. Gray whales are baleen whales, and unlike humpbacks, they dive down to the bottom and do a funny little twist to swim paralell to the bottom. There they open their mouths and then sift out the life – plankton as well as small shrimp, crustaeans, and mussles etc. They often have these symbiotic barnacles on their backs – and its actually a kind that is specific to grey whales! They tend to be able to tell an individual by the pattern of barnacles on their tales, as they do not have markings and dorsal fins like Orcas do.

We watched this grey whale for quite a while as it would breach the water for a bit, dive deep and then come up somewhere else far off. We circled the boat a number of times, especailly as it got closer and we had to turn off our engines again. It just kept surfacing and surfacing – until we had to sail away from that lovely being too.

On the way back she told us more about the orca pods, she discussed some gray whale facts, and then I learned all about how the US got those islands and the 49th parallel issues. Then the sea called to us again, and Wylder and I, with the occasional Tula ended up right at the tip of the bow again.

By the time we pulled into dock, we were sea weathered for sure. We thanked the crew, pilferd around in the gift ship for a moment (more stuffy begging), got more stickers and some earrings for me and T to share, and hobbled over to our car. We had a hotel for the night, with a balcony over looking a tiny beach and two beds. I went and secured us food at a Thai restaurant across the street – Pho for the girlie desperate for broth, shrimp for the little man, and something yummy I don’t remember for Chris. I splurged and got myself some palak paneer from the delicious smelling Indian food restaurant next door.

I came back to Tula reading on the balcony, a sqeuaky clean Wylder, and a super tired Chris. The kids and I wanted to get some water at the food co-op we had seen, and some bites for the morning, so we went out. We also took a stop by the beach where a festival had been happening earlier. A fully bull whip sized piece of kelp laid on the beach and the kids had a fun time cracking it. We saw some scultpures, and went to gaze in the water at the dock where our boat from the day was docked. We mozied over to the food co-op and got a cookie to split, and some nibbles for the morning. We headed back fully and totally exhausted.

Chris had made up the pull out bed for Wylder, and after Tula got clean we all settled in to be as quiet as we could be until light peeked though the next morning.