Laura | M/V Sea Lion | 3/8/2020 | 12:00pm

    What a gorgeous day to spend out on the water!  I was so excited to head south through the San Juan Channel in glass calm seas, with blue skies and clear visibility!  Cattle Point is one of my favorite viewing spots for a multitude of pelagic birds readily seen diving in the area for small schooling fish.  Today there were pigeon guillemots, common murres, cormorants, and grebes in abundance!  The lighthouse along Cattle Point added...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 07/18/19 | 3:00pm

What a great trip today! Captain Pete and I took the Kestrel and headed out to open seas to find the whales! We heard reports of the whales from our first trip travelling north so we set off in that direction.

We boated up through the San Juan Channel and up towards Waldron Island. Here we stopped at a little place called white rocks. We spotted so many harbor seals! These puppy dogs of the sea flopped around and tried to balance on tiny rocks...

Laura C. | 7/2/2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30pm

It was quite an adventure in the Salish Sea today on M/V Sea Lion!  Passengers embraced the wind and swirling seas like seasoned mariners, in hopes of momentarily connecting with these graceful and somewhat mysterious sea creatures.  Luckily our voyage was to close by Shaw Island, a trifle trip compared to journeys the Sea Lion is capable of enduring.  The rain and fog created breathtaking views of the treetops of surrounding islands...

Laura C. | 6-21-2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Today was a gorgeous day aboard M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe leading our voyage!  We headed south and were lucky right off the bat, finding harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions and a pair of bald eagles all sharing some small rocky islands right near San Juan Island.  We all were able to appreciate the sheer size of a hefty male sea lion as he shimmied his way towards the edge of the rocks, surrounded by basking females.  The harbor seals...

Laura C. | 6-21-2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Today was a gorgeous day aboard M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe leading our voyage!  We headed south and were lucky right off the bat, finding harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions and a pair of bald eagles all sharing some small rocky islands right near San Juan Island.  We all were able to appreciate the sheer size of a hefty male sea lion as he shimmied his way towards the edge of the rocks, surrounded by basking females.  The harbor seals...

Laura C. | 6-20-2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 pm

Our second trip on the 5:30 whale watch was spectacular!  We headed north and found T124As traveling right around Saturna Island!  The water was glass calm and as we were the only vessel in the area, the surrounding waters were quite peaceful!  We passed a couple of bald eagles perched on a surrounding rock formation and even spotted a juvenile bald eagle!  The calf of the T124A family was quite active and we were able to see most of the...

[Sarah | 03/17/2019 | M/V Seahawk | 12:00pm]

What a beautiful day in the San Juan Islands! Captain Erick and I got to take out the M/V Seahawk from Friday Harbor under bright blue skies on the search for wildlife… and what the search we had. We decided to leave the dock and head south to start, motoring our way towards Turn Island to search for some seals as well as to look for whales and other wildlife in Griffin Bay. We got some great looks at harbor seals, our most numerous marine...

M/V Sea Lion was all boarded and ready to go along with Captain Pete, naturalist Jordan and myself. The sunset trip was sounding like a good one already with a report of southern resident orca within our range. The only problem was, we didn’t know whether to head south or north to get around to the West side of the island from Friday Harbor. We were hesitant that if we went one way versus the other, they would keep moving the opposite way and away making it harder for us to catch up...

Jordan | July 7, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 & 5:30 trips

Captain Gabe, naturalist Rachel and I received reports of the T124As up in Canada! So, on both our trips today we boated up into international waters to see the whales.

On our first trip, we went up to Canada and found the killer whales off of a tiny island called Blunden, near the south point of south Pender Island. We followed them around Blunden and up the channel along the east side of Saturna Island. The four transient...

Jordan | July 6, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 & 5:30 trips

Captain Gabe, Naturalist Alexandria and I all set out on two trips to Canada today! Even though the voyages were long, Captain Gabe was determined to find the whales and make some wonderful memories for our guests.

On the first, trip we headed up around the west coast of Saturna Island and through Georgenson Pass. This area was incredibly beautiful as we passed by some deer grazing by the rocky shore and we spotted some bald...