Beam Reach

Snug Harbor to Snug Harbor
This morning we learned one of Newton’s laws of motion, that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. In this case the object was the wet mooring line and the outside force Lindsay’s face. Still giggling, we headed out of Snug Harbor and […]

Thursday 05/22/08
Snug Harbor to Snug Harbor
This morning we got a voice message letting us know that the whales were spotted at Hein Bank at about 8:00 AM. After an invigorating breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, with a dash of onions and peppers, we set off to go south from Snug to catch up with […]

Garrison Bay to Snug Harbor
After taking Jason to the dock for some well-deserved shore leave we transited to Snug Harbor and welcomed Dr. Robin Kodner.  Emerging into Haro Strait at a very low tide we headed south on advice from Jeanne and were surprised to find about 8 members of J pod (J2 matriline?) resting […]

Mackaye Harbor to Garrison Bay
At noon we pumped out at Friday Harbor, refilled propane, and picked up Scott and Ford’s call catalog. Ivan and Jeanne said hello as they headed up towards Point Roberts where J pod was reported about noon. We went up San Juan Channel and discussed whether we should go […]

Pelican Beach to Mackaye Harbor
Since we had left the southern residents heading north in Rosario the night before, we headed northwards to seek them out again and maybe visit Sucia Island.  Mike got a friendly call telling us they had somehow doubled back, passed us as we slept (with Jason listening to the hydrophone all […]

Friday Harbor Labs to Pelican Beach (Cypress Island)
We departed Friday Harbor at approximately 9:30 in the A.M. and headed south through Cattle Pass. Then, on word that J pod were nearing the north end of Rosario Straight, we headed east in hopes of meeting up with them in the process. As the day progressed, […]

Mackaye Harbor to Friday Harbor Labs
Today the whales were spotted near Val’s house in the morning, but they headed up north faster than we could get up to them, eventually heading east at Point Roberts. We did still have an eventful day - we found a stranded shark around False Bay that we think was […]

Snug Harbor to Mackaye Harbor
Today was a terrific day of clear skies and whale sightings! We encountered two leaders from a further southern scattered part of J-Pod off Eagle point around noon time, starting to record at 13:36. We followed them back North to Lime Kiln, only hearing clicks as they traveled fast and far […]

Roche Harbor to Snug Harbor
We didn’t catch up to the whales again today, but there were some conflicting reports, probably because some transients were in the area of Kelp Reef and then moved down past Discovery Island. Under that decoy cover it seems that J-pod headed north past Active Pass, probably heading for the […]

Garrison Bay to Roche Harbor
Today was a good day. We started calling other people in the whale network and found J pod by Lummi Island in Bellingham Channel. We made our way around the south side of San Juan and Lopez islands and finally found them. At 14:20:00 we started recording whale data for the […]