Jordan | July 1, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

 The morning was a not-so-sunny morning as the drizzling rain sprinkled across the calm waters of Friday Harbor. Captain Mike and I were excited for the day, nevertheless, and embraced the wetness with open spirits of adventure!

As we headed out, we spotted bald eagles right away! Perched high in a tree, they didn’t seem to mind the rain as they overlooked the harbor. Then Mike caught wind of some whales up in Canada! So, we decided to...

Thursday, May 17th | M/V Sea Lion | Noon

Pushing off the docks in Friday Harbor this afternoon, Captain Mike took the Sea Lion to the north, toward Spieden Island, where we found a few remaining Steller’s sea lions lounging on Green Point, savoring the last seconds of laziness before making the trek to Alaska for their breeding season.

Moving through New Channel and up John’s Pass we spotted quite a few bald eagles perched on trees and soaring overhead! We continued up through...

April 16, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 PM

Today was a very stereotypical Pacific Northwest day, with a lot of cloud-cover producing a lot of rain, but the islands were dotted so beautifully with those wispy low-lying clouds just touching the evergreens, the type of scene that made me fall in love with this area. Captain Mike, myself, and a small group of great people left Friday Harbor and made our way north through San Juan Channel. We got a great look at a large group of harbor...

There's a few things you should know about orcas. First: they're fast. They can get up to 30 knots on a good day. And you're all, "But that's not that fast, Erick" and then I'm all, "Well, imagine 8 tons of pure speed and salmon eating muscle traveling through heavy currents traveling at 35 mph (56kph for the rest of the world)" and now I'll give you time to be impressed... Orcas are one of the fastest marine mammals alive and in groups they can travel around 100 miles (161 km) in a...

Long trek to get to the whales today. Earlier reports had transient, our marine mammal-eating orcas, near Captains Pass heading Northeast towards Active Pass. By the time M/V Sea Lion got there from Friday Harbor the whales were at the mouth of Active Pass. Although this was a long trip to the transients, it was also well worth it! Traveling through the Canadian Gulf Islands is always a favorite of our staff and passengers, because of the sheer cliffsides and the narrow passages...

Around 10:40 AM this morning we received a Southern Resident Killer Whale report: members of J, K, and L pod headed north in Haro Strait. We were extremely excited yet a bit uneasy knowing they were headed for Active Pass (Canada). Luckily enough by the time we boarded and headed out for the strait the whales had turned around. It couldn’t have been more perfect timing.

As we made our way into the gut of the strait, reaching a center point between Stewart, Moresby, Sidney, and...

Today we met up with 7-8 members of J-Pod on the southwest side of Mayne Island (Canada) headed north for Active Pass (48°50.93’N, 123°20.55’W). They were resting, traveling in a tight-knit group, surfacing in unison for a few breaths, and then taking deep dives for a few moments. In this group we identified Blackberry (J27), Doublestuf (J34), and Princess Angeline (J17). We left them headed north around 3:30 PM in hopes of finding more whales south for our evening cruise.

Naturalist...

Word was that killer whales were north and headed north today, so we wasted no time departing from Friday Harbor. Along the way we spotted a few curious harbor seals and some harbor porpoise. Then we weaved in between the beautiful Canadian islands of Saturna and South Pender before heading through Active Pass. Just north of Active Pass we spotted a killer whale breach in the distance! (48° 53.267 N 123° 17.661 W). It was J-Pod. The whales were spread out, traveling in small groups...

Today we headed out into the Georgia Strait where we had originally heard of a sighting of 3 transient orcas. Unfortunately as we got closer to the area, we were informed that the group had suddenly switched direction and were headed northwest at a high speed. There was no way our boat or any others from Friday Harbor could catch up with them so we aborted.

We then got news of some Dall’s Porpoise in Active Pass and were fortunate enough to catch up with them. It was a group of about...

After a night of rain, I woke up this morning to still more rain, as it sometimes goes here in Washington.  But as the day progressed, the weather got better and better.  By the time our departure time rolled around, it was looking pretty good and sunny out here in the San Juan Islands.  From Friday Harbor, we headed north with word and hope of possible whales up in Canada by Active Pass.

After an hour of searching and a pass by a few Stellar sea lions, we started to see vessels off...