Dad posted this on facebook. It's a description of our incredible Orca encounter on our San Juans sailing trip this week. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed.

"Just home from a week sailing the San Juan Islands in Dauphine, our 31 foot sloop. It was a great trip, with Alex and her friend Tyler joining us for the final 3 days. Great sailing and spectacular sunsets. But, without a doubt, the events of Tuesday were once in a lifetime. As we rounded the west coast of San Juan Island and just passed False Bay, we found ourselves in the midst of many pods of Orcas. Boats are not supposed to approach close to Orcas, and we were under sail with the motor off, and we kept an appropriate distance, with enough wind to be able to position the boat as well as the commercial whale watchers were in the several commercial power boats around. At one point I had brought us to a dead stop by back winding the sails to heave to. We watched the whales swim away. But then another pod came straight towards us. We could not move away, so we sat in place as they swam past. After some time all the power boats left, we sailed on a bit and then headed out across the Straight of Juan De Fuca in a brisk wind. But soon the wind died, and we found ourselves drifting calmly with 1 knot of wind just enough wind to point the bow into the wind. Pulling out my home made hydrophone amid a few short lived chuckles, I lowered it into the water and turned it on. A lone haunting whale whistle was followed by a chorus of clear and beautiful songs. We saw pods of Orcas to port, to starboard and astern, all swimming closer and closer. All we could do was sit and watch, listen and take pictures as they swam to and past us, then came back. One pod came straight at us from abeam starboard, with their 4 to 5 foot tall fins and huge torsos breaking the surface, their tips rising as high as our decks above the water. It was like watching 5 Poseidon submarines coming at us, with their shallow shallow dives, followed by the sound of their surfacing and blowing in pairs. As they reached the boat, they split and two dove directly under the boat, two crossed the bow only feet from us and one crossed astern. Their songs were magnificent and loud in the hydrophone. After passing, they paused, and one bobbed up, nose straight up looking back at us, then slipping back down as they swam off to the north. We will never forget those few hours during which we must have seen 30 or 40 separate animals. There are no words, recordings or pictures that can capture it. I will post some photos as soon as I edit them, and my next project will be to hook a recorder to the hydrophone......"