Erick | Saturday, March 9, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

If you can imagine a perfect March day, then that day was today. The sun was shining bright, there were a few fluffy white clouds hanging out above the islands, and the breeze was slight. Captain Mike, Sarah, and I took a pretty large group out aboard M/V Sea Lion. We left from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. And headed south into San Juan Channel. The channels in between the main islands of the San Juan Islands are not very...

October 5- M/V Sea Lion- 12 PM

Today we left Friday Harbor with the report of orcas just off the South West side of San Juan Island.  We cruised around the area and found some harbor seals and Steller’s sea lions.  we then continued around the island and found the whales just off shore from Lime Kiln lighthouse.  We watched as the two transient families spread out looking for food.  We got to spend a lot of time with the whales and then decided to circumnavigate San Juan Island.

Our...

Guests aboard Kestrel along with Cpt. Gabe and I were excited to get on the water with two great reports already within our reach. Headed out the harbor, we decided to go south towards Victoria, where a report of transients, not yet ID’ed, had been picked up. Taking the challenge and curious to see who these animals were, we quickly went down San Juan Channel. 

As we exited the channel through Cattle Pass, we made a pit stop at Whale rocks to greet our Steller Sea lions and even got...

Jordan | July 26, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

As the sun started setting in the sky, it cast shadows everywhere making everything look even more beautiful. Captain Pete, Naturalist Rachel and I set off on our vessel towards reports of whales on the other side of the island! So, we set off.

Out of Friday Harbor, we headed south down the San Juan channel, through Cattle Pass and Cattle Point lighthouse. We rounded the corner and headed straight up the west side of San Juan through...

Jordan | July 18, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

Today was a lovely day! Even though the day started out with a gray, cloud covered sky with a brisk breeze in the air, by mid-trip, the clouds parted and blue skies lit up our morning.

Captain Gabe and I heard of whales on the west side of San Juan! So, excited to start the day, we booked it out of Friday Harbor and headed south through the San Juan Channel. We passed by southern point of San Juan, Cattle Point, and headed up the west...

Jordan | July 14, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00

Today was a spectacular day full of so many displays of the beauty of nature. Captain Gabe and I headed south through the San Juan Channel past Cattle Point and dropped by the Whale Rocks to check out some seals! They were super cute flopping around on the rocks.

Then we voyaged into the Salmon Bank. Here we boated around the shallow waters until we found a minke whale! Minke whales are the smallest baleen whale in the world! We like to...

Captain Mike, our excited guests, and I took off down the San Juan Channel on a peaceful Saturday afternoon. Firstly, Captain Mike went through the inside of Turn Island and came out at a harbor seal haul out to observe some seals who happened to have some pups with them! We then continued down the channel and as we approached Cattle Pass, with surprisingly calm waters, we saw some sea lions posted up on Whale rocks. Some of these sea lions were busy cooling off in the water and...

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...

[6/30/17- M/V Kestrel- 2:00PM]

It’s always nice to have options, particularly when whale watching. And today, we had several! With 3-4 groups of whales to choose from, we departed Friday Harbor on M/V Kestrel first in search of a group of transient killer whales in Garrison Bay, maybe a 5-10 minute boat ride from the harbor! We approached the scene to see about 5 orcas travelling and being a bit playful with tail-splashes, spyhopping, and cartwheeling, not very common behavior for...

[May 31, 2017 -- M/V Kestrel -- 2:00pm Charter]

One of my favorite things about M/V Kestrel is that with its speed our trip gains flexibility in wildlife viewing. Yesterday we left the dock with favorable reports of killer whales, but, because of the boat we were on, we got to see so much more.

We first cruised north through San Juan Channel towards Flattop Island. In circumnavigating the small wildlife refuge we got awesome looks at Pacific Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks...