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...

Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, which is not an uncommon way to start our day.  Just as we were exiting the harbor we got a report of some transient orcas about 10 minutes away from us.  We came across the T137’s hunting what looked to be like a porpoise.  Things were just getting exciting as we got there with lots of white water and jumping going on.  We then watched the orcas slowly begin to share their food and travel northwest.  We watched as...

It was humpback whales galore today near Friday Harbor.  We saw one humpback whale just outside of the harbor in San Juan Channel.  We then decided to head south and stop to see some harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions at whale rocks.  Steller’s spend their summers on the coast and up in Alaska for their breeding season, but this time of year we still see some juveniles that like to hang around.  We then got another report of a second humpback whale a little further south of San...

Captain Mike and I were up early today and excited to see what was out there! Southern resident orcas had been hanging around the islands for the past couple of days and we could not wait to get a better look at them! We, along with our 11 smiling guests, headed down San Juan Channel to go look for some orcas. We first took a good look at the South end of Lopez and saw some harbor seals hauled out along with 3 bald eagles perched up in the nearby trees and rocks. We then headed...

Headed out of Friday Harbor on a summer-like June day after a pretty rainy and moody month, we were finally getting a taste of that hot summer sun! The breeze in the harbor was warm and the water calm and clear. Captain Mike, naturalist Piper and myself headed north for the San Juan Channel to look for some whales. We barely made it out of the harbor when we received a call from a nearby boat that there were whales headed towards the harbor coming from the south end of the island up...

[Wednesday, 6/13/18 - M/V Kestrel - 10:00AM - Naturalist Erick]

Today we had another ‘June-ary’ day as the morning started out with rain but broke to a delightful sunny day. Captain Mike and I took a smaller group of folks out to search for all the fun morning critters out in the Salish Sea. We headed north through San Juan and Spieden Channels until we made it to the other side of Boundary Pass near South Pender Island. Here there was a large group of Bigg’s Orcas feeding and...

[Sunday, 6/10/18 - M/V Sea Lion - Noon - Naturalist Erick]

On Sunday, Captain Pete, myself, and one of the new Naturalists, Jordan, left with a super group aboard M/V Sea Lion to search the Salish Sea for all it’s wonderful critters. First, we made our way towards the outer islands of the San Juan archipelago. These Islands are where the U.S. and Canada border is located and are more sparsely populated then the four main islands a little bit south. Just north of PAtos Island with...

[Saturday, 6/9/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Saturday we headed out for another wonderful wildlife filled trip in the San Juan Islands. Captain Mike and I took a lovely group of folks out on M/V Kestrel into the bright, sunny, and calm day. We went south along the Shaw Island shoreline and took an inter-island route to near Obstruction Island. As you pause and san the horizon here it looks like you’re trapped in between Orcas, Shaw, Lopez, and Blakely Islands...

[Thursday, 6/7/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 12:00 - Naturalist Erick] T100’s

On Thursday we got a little break in what locals call our “June-uary” weather. After a sunny warm stint in May, June often comes here and reminds us that it is still spring. Captain Mike, myself, and one of our brand new Naturalists, Mariana, took a great group of folks out to look for more fun springtime wildlife! We headed up north in between the outer islands of the San Juan Archipelago. We made our first stop...

[Monday, 6/4/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Monday, Captain Gabe and I took M/V Kestrel with a smaller group of folks out to look for amazing wildlife out in the Salish Sea. We headed south down San Juan Channel. We made our first stop at Whale Rocks situated at the entrance to San Juan Channel This entrance called Cattle Pass is a very small channel with a lot of shallow areas so as the tide moves in and out the currents rip through here often causing white water...