Captain Pete, naturalist Alexandria and I were ready for our day trip on a beautiful and sunny Tuesday. With almost a full boat, the guests and us were ready to see some whales! Captain Gabe had reports of Transient Orcas up near the Gulf Islands in Canada and headed towards us. This group had apparently cruised by Friday Harbor and up the San Juan Channel earlier that morning. It would take us about an hour to get up there, so we headed up the channel with no time to lose. How much...

The whales were proving that they are the dominant marine species today. While we were rocking and rolling through the waves and being whipped by the wind, the orcas were effortlessly swimming along through the Canadian Gulf Islands. After we took the MV Sea Lion out of the dock today we headed for Turn Point on Stuart Island. The last orca report that we had had said that they were already past Lime Kiln and were headed North. At Haro Strait we gave way to a huge ocean-going...