Today was a cloudy day here in the San Juans, The islands look they do for most of the year, not the bright sunny days, but the cool green and grey days where the clouds begin just where the trees end. Captain Mike and I headed north towards Flattop and Spieden Islands to check a pretty common place where marine mammals are found due to the currents that concentrate food in that area. We first spotted a Humpback Whale near Flattop Island. It was a young humpback that has been hanging...

You know what people love more than whales? Nothing except more whales and maybe perhaps the idea of autumn as they drown everything in brighter earth tones, sweaters, and pumpkin spice flavoring, but today wasn’t one of those days it was a whale of a day. Captain Mike, myself and Alex headed north to search for the Southern Resident Orcas. We first spotted them around East Point on Saturna Island. This place is one of my favorite in the islands, the current get a little bit crazy...

Today was another awesome almost autumn day.  Captain Mike and I headed North towards Spieden Island. We snuck around the north side of the island and soon saw a Humpback Whale fluke up! It was a fairly young one feeding in between Spieden and Johns Islands ever so lazily. We watched it fluke up a few times. As we get into fall more and more Humpbacks are heading south to their breeding grounds so we may see more in the upcoming weeks based on how hungry they are, the food...

It appears that fall is here, as the weather is constantly keeping us guessing. Rain? Shine? A combination of both within the space of 10 minutes? Sure, why not. That's what we love about our island home. And, staying true to the theme of San Juan Safaris (always embracing adventure and the beauty and unpredictability of nature!) we left the drizzly harbor this past Saturday with a decision to search for our whale friends down south. 

We cruised down around whale rocks, checked out...

Orcas are so amazing - they have one of the most complex social structures of any mammal species out there. We get to see this in action on many days out here, and some days (like yesterday!) we get really lucky. We were able to see members of K and J-Pod spread out along the west side of San Juan Island, alternatively foraging, traveling, and playing with each other. The viewings of these beautiful animals kept getting more and more exciting from the moment we arrived on scene. One...

M/V Sea Lion and her passengers witnessed some pretty amazing Southern Resident Killer Whale activity today! We had only to travel a bit south to Cattle Pass to catch up with a large group of J's and L's that were headed west (unfortunately, it looked like they were heading out of the Salish Sea through the Strait of Juan de Fuca). At first sighting, they appeared to be traveling rather quickly, spread out and sporadically slowing down to forage for their main food source, Chinook...

Today was a fairytale, a pure, Salish Sea, fairytale! Although weather conditions down south were a little bit iffy, with two foot chop and white caps through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and up Haro as well, M/V Sea Lion was headed north, where nothing could stop us! We had flat, calm seas, beautifully reflecting the clear skies above. The most exciting part was the favorable reports of resident orcas on the west side of the island, moving north. As we cruised up San Juan Channel on...

Today was a tearful one. It was Captain Pete and Naturalist Hannah’s last day this season, but before they left me all alone we had the best day ever. All three of us along with a whole boatful of great humans headed south today. We made it all the way to the Strait of Juan de Fuca to find the orcas. Today it was the Southern Resident Orcas that we were watching. These are the salmon eating orcas and their population is critically endangered. Today we saw two families of J pod. The J...

Let’s see…it’s Saturday on Labor Day weekend, which means the island is buzzing a little bit more than usual. Restaurants start to require reservations, ferries require a longer wait time, and we get to take more folks out on our boats! This buzz creates a wonderful atmosphere, since folks flock here to celebrate the end of summer and are in the mood to soak up the sun and enjoy themselves. And, as it turns out, it wasn’t just humans that wanted to congregate here this weekend! Some...

Another beautiful day in Friday Harbor, but we were excited to depart and hit the water to see what adventures we had in store for us today. The M/V Sea Lion pushed off the dock and turned south today, with reports of residents frolicking and foraging near the south side of the island. Although the sky looked a bit gloomy, the rain held off for us, and the sun even popped out to say "What's up!" a couple of times. 

This is one of my favorite routes to take on our tours, because you...