Woah! It’s July. When did that happen? It definitely does not feel like July which I bet most people around the world can commiserate with. On top of that we are getting some classic early July Pacific Northwest weather here. Captain Sarah and I headed out into the gray day and light rain to go searching for more exciting wildlife in the San Juans. We headed south towards San Juan Channel and Cattle Pass. As we entered the pass the rain let up and we soon saw a Minke Whale around...

It is only the second day that we have taken M/V Kestrel out this season, and it was a great one. We headed out and took a quick peak at some Harbor Seals sunning themselves on rocks near Turn Island. They looked up at us as we passed by and we got to see their cute, fuzzy faces. After watching them for a while we got a report of some possible orcas just south of us. We traveled south and soon saw them rounding Long Island. They were Bigg’s Orcas! These are the type of orcas that we...

Sarah | 06/24/2020 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

WHAT A DAY!! We had such an amazing day on the water exploring the Salish Sea looking for wildlife. With two separate rumors of whales around the San Juan Islands, but no confirmed reports. This meant that we had to go out to find the whales ourselves!

Captain Erick opted to try to find a group of orcas who had been spotted earlier in the day off the westside of San Juan Island. We made our way north through San Juan Channel, around the...

Sunday June 22, 2020

Happy Father’s Day to everyone! We know it is technically supposed to be summer these days but up here in the PNW summer seems to have a slow start. We left Friday Harbor on a little bit of an overcast day, but as we left and headed north the weather started to clear. We headed up towards Flattop Island where we got to see some sleepy Harbor Seals sunning themselves on the rocky coastline. As we passed them two Bald Eagles popped into view in one of the Douglas...

Erick | Sunday, November 10, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

                We’re quickly moving into November and soon it will be the last trip of the year! This Sunday, we received great sunny weather with a slight breeze as we headed out with Capt. Pete at the wheel as well as Sarah and myself along as Naturalists. We headed north towards reports of whales that Brain, the owner of San Juan Safaris and Sarah had found earlier this morning! As we approached Green Point on Spieden...

Naturalist Erick | Sunday, October 13, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | Noon

We couldn’t ask for better fall weather today when Capt. Pete and I took a full group out to go search for wildlife in the Salish Sea.  We started out by heading east through Upright Channel and through the small passage between Obstruction Island and Blakely Island called Peavine Pass. We had heard earlier of reports of some orcas in Rosario Strait and were looking for them. There they were heading north towards...

Sarah | 10/12/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

What an incredible day on the water! After an early morning report of a huge group of orcas moving east in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Captain Erick and I were eager to leave the dock here in Friday Harbor to go out and explore!

We decided to head south out of the harbor, and on the way out towards open water we stopped to check out some Steller’s sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass between San Juan and Lopez Islands. These...

Naturalist Erick | Saturday, October 5, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | Noon

Saturday started in a pretty typical Pacific Northwest way. Rain and low hanging clouds fell and scraped the tops of the evergreen hills of the San Juan Islands. As Capt. Pete and I got ready to take a full boat out to search for the exciting wildlife of the Salish Sea blue skies started to appear and the sun came out! We motored north through San Juan Channel and started our journey at White Rock. Here we saw a...

Piper | Saturday, October 5, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Today started out so dreary but by the time we were gathering for our 12:00 Classic trip, the rain dried up and the sun was just starting to peak through the clouds, making for a beautiful day on the water!! Captain Sarah, Jacob, our Kayak Operations Manager, and I took a truly awesome and enthusiastic group of folks out into the Salish Sea today, heading northwest towards a report of Bigg’s killer whales which had been...