Almost left a naturalist at the dock today! With the winds prevailing, the naturalist wasn’t quite fast enough to get on board once she let the lines loose. Luckily the captain came back to pick her up at the “Spring Street Landing” dock. With all on board we headed out through the San Juan Channel. A light drizzle and sun-teasing skies had the crowd curious. We arrived at the first stop on the north side of Spieden Island and found one lonely Steller Sea Lion. Traveling our way...

Another beautiful sunny day in the San Juan Islands. We saw several members of the J-pod including J2 “Granny” the 100 year old matriarch.  After viewing the whales we motored through Mosquito Pass into Roche Harbor where a number of seabird species were observed including surf scoters, rhinoceros auklets, pelagic cormorants and pigeon guillemot We ended our day traveling along Spieden Island where harbor seals and Steller sea lions were hauled out basking in the sunshine while...

It's not too often we have the opportunity to circumnavigate San Juan Island; it usually isn't terribly convenient for where we have to travel and the amount of time we have to do it in.  But today was the exception to the rule.

We got the call in early that there were orcas spotted off of Canada's Discovery Island (just off of the southern tip of Vancouver Island) but that they may be headed out to sea.  So off we went, full boat and ready for wildlife viewing.  After traveling...

It was inevitable, but sad all of the same. Tonight was our last evening trip. We did not waste it though and we had a lovely group of guests out with us on the M/V Sea Lion. Even though there were no resident orcas tonight we still saw all kinds of wonderful wildlife.

As Capt. Pete toured us through the islands, we stopped time and again for harbor seals hauled out on rocks. Of course, there is always a method to Capt. Pete's madness and he was stopping at all of the places...

As the orcas sought food and adventure in the waters of the pacific, so we sought peace and relaxation amongst the islands. We were without whales today, but our guests did not suffer for it. Capt. Nancy took the MV Sea Lion, guest naturalist Russell and me on a beautiful wildlife cruise under warm sunny skies.

Harbor seals with pups were on every corner and I lost count of all of the bald eagles that we saw. Mouflon sheep, along with sika and fallow deer, were all out on Spieden...

Our evening sunset tours are very popular, but after tonight they are going to be the talk of the town. It is not every day that less than five minutes after you leave the dock you are with a whale. But on this night, that is exactly what happened. Capt. Nancy and I boarded our guests onto the MV Sea Lion for an evening cruise in the hopes that the Orcas that we knew were west of Victoria, B.C. would swim our direction. I had just finished giving the group some history on the...