[Sarah – 05/10/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

Captain Mike and I had an amazing spring trip aboard M/V Sea Lion with a marvelous group of guests! Everyday in the month of May we inch closer and closer to what we consider our peak season to see orcas, but don’t tell the whales that!! We’ve experienced an incredible early season with sightings of orcas and humpbacks on about 75% of our trips, far higher a percentage that our predicted 50%!

We left the dock with an early report of...

[Thursday, 5/3/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick]

May is here and things are beginning to feel more and more like summer. More staff are arriving back and even Captain Pete has returned from his journeys around the world. Captain Pete tagged along with us on this trip as Captain Mike and I took folks out on another sunny day in the islands. We started by heading north and looking in the places where there is food for the whale species and types that we usually see during...

[Sarah – 04/26/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

M/V Sea Lion left Friday Harbor on a late April day that felt more like the middle of July! The sun was shining, the temperature was warm, and we had a rumor of whales in the area to start our day!

Captain Brian and I decided to head north towards Patos and Sucia Islands, weaving around Jones Island, and then northeast through Presidents Channel between Waldron and Orcas Islands. There were beautiful views of Mt. Baker and the Canadian...

[Sarah – 04/25/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

Yesterday’s noon whale watch was perfection: full of tons of wildlife, b-e-a-utiful blue skies with sunshine, and of course, whales! Captain Brian, Erick, and I were excited to explore the Salish Sea with our group of intrepid guests.

Heading north around San Juan Island we decided to cut straight to the chase, and ducked into Haro Strait on the west side of San Juan to follow up on an early report of killer whales traveling north. We met...

Sarah – 04/18/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

Wowza, what a day of whale watching! Pre-season is one of my favorite times to be on the water because we never know what we will find out on the water. Yesterday started out pretty normally for an April day with no reports of whales as we left the dock. Captain Brian and I decided to head north towards the Canadian Gulf Islands to try our luck finding whales and other wildlife. Here in the San Juans there is no “normal” spot to begin...

April 16, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Today was a very stereotypical Pacific Northwest day, with a lot of cloud-cover producing a lot of rain, but the islands were dotted so beautifully with those wispy low-lying clouds just touching the evergreens, the type of scene that made me fall in love with this area. Captain Mike, myself, and a small group of great people left Friday Harbor and made our way north through San Juan Channel. We got a great look at a large group of harbor...

Monday, April 9 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon

Captain Mike and I got the Sea Lion off the docks today with a great little group of folks onboard and as we left Friday Harbor we made a plan to head south in search of orcas. Passing by Cattle Point Lighthouse we got a view of a colony of Steller’s sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks with a juvenile bald eagle perched atop! After getting a nice whiff of their stank we decided to check out Salmon Bank, an area south of San Juan Island...

[Sunday – 4/8/18 – 12:00 – M/V Sea Lion – Naturalist Erick]

            This Sunday was another cloudy and misty day here in the Pacific Northwest. Captain Brian, Rachael, and I headed out with a group of excited passengers. We headed north to go in search of whales and other exciting wildlife as well as avoid some of the spring winds that were blowing out of the south. We made it all the way up to Swanson Channel. Just around Moat Point we started to see some blows in the distance...

[Naturalist Sarah – 04/06/2018 – M/V Kestrel – 1:00pm]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…… flowers blooming, turkey vultures in the air, warm breezes, the sweet melodies of lawn mowers around Friday Harbor….. Spring is here in the San Juans! That means one thing for us here at San Juan Safaris: the much anticipated first M/V Kestrel trip of the season! After a long prep day (shout out to Captain/Naturalist Erick) the boat looked sparkly clean and ready for a summer of adventures!

Captain Brian and I...

[Naturalist Sarah – 04/03/2018 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]

April trips don’t often start with whale reports on the dock, but on Tuesday we had incredible reports of orcas be fore we left Friday Harbor. Captain Brian opted for a southerly route, so he steered the M/V Sea Lion right out of the harbor.

The original orcas that were reported on the west side of San Juan Island had been fairly non-directional… traveling north along the shoreline, and then south. With plenty of time to...