Olivia | September 30th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Today was SO magical! We left Friday Harbor heading north through the San Juan Channel and cutting through Spieden Channel in order to end up near Henry Island. All along the way we saw swimming Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises! However, what really took our breath away was seeing a big male Southern Resident Killer Whale! It was beautiful right in the sunshine! I may use an excessive amount of exclamation points in this blog...

Olivia | September 28th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Sadly, today was my last Kestrel trip of the season with Captain Gabe and we decided early on that it was going to be epic. Being one of the first boats out on the water, we often must travel into areas where there haven’t been other boats in order to find potential whale sightings. We heard of a Humpback Whale near Battleship Island north of Roche Harbor, but decided to go scope out waters elsewhere due to the amount of boats...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 09/24/19 | 12:00pm

It was so nice out on the water! It was super sunny and warm, and the blue skies brightened everyone’s day!

Captain Gabe and I took the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed north through the San Juan Channel.

Along the way we saw our first wildlife sighting: a bald eagle! It was soaring through the sky, elegantly flying with ease as it surveyed the area for fish before disappearing behind the trees.

We boated up towards Speiden and...

Olivia | September 23rd, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 11:00am

We started off our Classic Whale Watch trip by heading north through San Juan Channel into Boundary Pass and up through Plumper Sound. As we boated along, we saw Harbor Seals and Harbor Porpoises swimming around in the rain. Once we started to turn into Georgesons Passage, we spotted a big Bald Eagle perched up at the top of a pine scanning the water horizon! Not only that, but about two minutes later we saw a Great Blue Heron...

Olivia | September 20th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

We love our Adventure Trip on M/V Kestrel! The great thing about it? High speeds which means further distances in our time frame! We started the trip by heading south through the San Juan Channel to see some Steller’s Sea Lions bellowing their burping noises all the way across the water and swimming about in the currents around Whale Rocks. From there, Captain Gabe informed us of some black and white whales very far away past...

Olivia | September 19th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

Today was such a treat all the way around. As Captain Erick, Co-Naturalist Sarah and I started heading north through the San Juan Channel with our passengers, we stumbled upon a rare surprise just south of Flattop Island- a Northern Fur Seal! We rarely get fur seals in our waters; in fact, this was Sarah’s first time in her six years of working here and Erick has only seen them once down in the Puget Sound. After taking in the...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 09/19/19 | 11:00am

What an incredible day!

Captain Gabe and I took the Kestrel out into the foggy depths of the San Juan channel and up towards the north. We could hardly see the outline of Spedien Island as we approached!

We boated near the island and found hundreds of exotic animals! I’ve literally never seen so many mouflon sheep, sika deer and fallow deer all grazing together in huge herds! There were groups of huge male sika deer with antlers wandering...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 09/18/19 | 12:00pm

What a crazy epic day today!

Captain Gabe, Naturalist Piper and I took the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed north through the San Juan Channel. We heard reports from deep within Canadian territory, so we headed that direction. Boating above Stuart Island and crossing Boundary Pass, we crossed the border. We continued up toward Georgeson Pass, intertwining between gorgeous islands, admiring the birds flying by.

As we emerged into open...

Olivia | September 12th, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm

What a great day near San Juan Island! Captain Gabe, Co-Naturalist Piper and I headed south through the San Juan Channel to aim for the Strait of Juan de Fuca in hopes of seeing potential whale sightings. We made a stop at Whale Rocks where we were able to view [and listen] to heaps of Steller’s Sea Lions! Loving these large Pinnipeds, it was so great to hear their deep bellows and watch them snooze, play, and swim in the high...

Olivia | September 11th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 3:00pm Private Charter

This afternoon we had a private charter of two book on, which was an absolute delight. These folks were so excited just to be on the water checking out the gorgeous scenery of our many islands. We decided to wave at the Humpback Whale still hanging out in the channel from earlier in the season and attempt to go find something black and white and moving away from us. We boated north through San Juan Channel, cutting...