Our adventures today started off a little cool, cloudy and choppy as we traveled south towards Cattle Pass.  Along the way, we stopped for some harbor seals hauled out attempting to bask but then found others at the Pass being more efficient with their time (there was no sun for basking) hunting for food.

Around the bend, headed northwest into the Haro Straight, we began seeing intermittent identifiable black dorsal fins: looks like J-pod was in the neighborhood.  The pod was spread...

Today was a day of border crossing, and re-crossing, and crossing again.  In search of orcas rumored to be nearly out of reach, we headed north out of the harbor, eventually crossing the border into Canada at Boundary Pass.  Up around Saturna Island, we went into the Strait of Georgia where we finally found whales.  We spent much of our time going back and forth across the border as we observed J-pod and L87, a large male named "Onyx" with a solid white saddle patch on his right side...

The sun was shining and the waters were calm as we headed north in search of wildlife. Just as we left Friday Harbor, we spotted a harbor seal poking his head out of the water and slowed down to get a better look. We continued our journey enjoying the beautiful day and the sites of the surrounding islands. As we reached the west side of San Juan Island north of Lime Kiln, we saw what we were looking for, killer whales! Lots of them! The pod was spread out so we didn’t know which...

We were excited to depart Friday Harbor with sun, glass waters and a boat full of passengers who’ve never seen whales in the wild before. We headed north into Canadian waters where the orcas were last sited. After viewing harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, we continued into the Strait of Georgia. It took us over an hour to get there, but at last, killer whales!

There were many orcas, perhaps two pods, spread out over a large distance. We stayed to the outside of the group and...

It started raining at exactly 1:00.  We slogged out of the harbor under a giant black cloud that seemed to cover only San Juan Island.  The farther away we got, the more sun we saw.  Finally, headed southeast over the top of Lopez Island and down the east side, we moved out from under the cloud and into the sunshine.  Guess who was waiting for us in the sunshine?  Orcas.  Resident orcas.  Lots of them.  We found them in Rosario Straight.  They were spread from the near side of the...

On this beautiful, sunny Thursday afternoon we headed south out of Friday Harbor with news that the killers were hanging around the west side of San Juan Island. The passengers spirits were high as we headed out with the prospect of seeing all sorts of wildlife. As we made our journey west we stopped to watch some harbor seals hauled out on rocky areas soaking up some sun. Just before we reached Lime Kiln we saw what we were looking for, the killer whales were up ahead. It was J pod...

Woooeeee, the whales made us work for it today!  Resident killer whales were reported at nearly the farthest point we can travel on our trips and they weren't coming our way south either.  We loaded up both boats and headed north right out of Friday Harbor with not a moment to spare to stop and gaze at other islands as we went.  We crossed the border into Canada at the Haro Straight, went into Plumper Sound and  between Mayne and Saturna Islands to pop out on the other side in the...

We departed Friday Harbor and headed north.  There was absolutely no wind and the water was like glass.  An incredible night for whale watching.  We caught up to J-pod around Monarch Head on Saturna island.  There were about six animals traveling very close to each other, and very close to shore.  We had perfect lighting for all the photographers on the boat to get some great shots of the whales surfacing together.  We even had some passengers capture the elusive 'spyhop' behavior on...

Any time you're thinking about getting on a boat, check the sky and then cross your fingers.  Today we had intermittent sunshine over Friday Harbor and dark gray low-hanging clouds to the south.  And to the south we went... with fingers crossed that the clouds would continue out to sea and away from our projected travels.

Just before leaving the protection of the islands, we saw a handful of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks exchanging 48 degree Celsius water for slightly warmer...

We narrowly escaped the rain today; luckily, by trip departure time it was done raining in the San Juan Islands.  Overcast weather and threats of rain don't keep the whales away though and as we rounded Cattle Point and came up along the west side in some choppy waves, we were rewarded for our perseverance: J-pod was back from their few-day stint at sea.

Spread out in a long line along the west coast, we watched the orcas travel in their smaller groups past Lime Kiln State Park.  One...