August 24- M/V Kestrel- 10:00 am

We left the dock at Friday Harbor and East towards a report of a few transient orcas near Anacortes.  As we cruised along we kept an eye out for some other wildlife and came across some harbor porpoise and a bald eagle. We made it to the report of orcas on the North side of Cypress Island. It was the sibling pair of T65A3, who is 11 years old, and T65A4, who is 7 years old.  These two siblings have been hanging out on their own for a few days.  This...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with Cpt. Pete, naturalist Erick and I were excited to get on the water on this beautiful day with a report of orcas almost within our reach. Eager to get everyone on the boat and ready to pick up speed we took off hopeful to get to see these animals.

As of earlier, only one whale sighting from way up north had been reported. With no other reports in our area, we quickly headed up the San Juan Channel with plans to take Boundary Pass into the Strait...

Guests aboard M/V Sea Lion along with the crew had quite a day today! Heading out Naturalists Eric, Captain Gabe, and I were struggling to decide what group of orcas to go watch! There being a couple of reports of whales nearby from other boats, we decided to go through Upright Channel to the north side of Lopez to encounter a group. There were two young transient orca in this group traveling apart from their pod, which was further southwest. This was not typical behavior of two...

Jordan | August 22, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

Today was such a good day! Captain Gabe and I headed south through the San Juan Channel towards reports of transient whales near the Olympic Peninsula. We first stopped by Whale Rocks and saw some Steller sea lions on the rocks! It was really fun to see these massive animals lounging and enjoying the sun streaming through the cloudy skies. There were also harbor seals sitting nearby flopping around.

Then we sped off further south...

Jordan | August 22, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

This morning started off really crazily amazing! Captain Gabe and I headed out of Friday Harbor and headed south down through the San Juan Channel and almost immediately found a Steller sea lion eating a skate! Skates are a species of fish that are related to rays. So, the sea lion was splashing around at the surface, throwing around this flat floppy fish and ripping it apart! It was so exciting to witness the circle of life at work...

Jordan | August 21, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip

What a great day out on the water! Despite the fog and smoke that is still lingering around the San Juan Islands, we had a great day cruising around the Salish Sea.

We headed south down through the San Juan Channel and stopped by Whale Rocks to check out some Steller sea lions! These animals are HUGE and yet seem super elegant in the water…until they crawl up on land and lumber and roll around. We also saw some harbor seals that are...

Leaving the harbor aboard M/V Sea Lion with Captain Pete and naturalist Eric, I️ was excited to be on the water on such a sunny August day after a couple of foggy ones. There was a report of a humpback not too far away from us, so we decided to head that direction. 

Headed up north towards Waldron Island, we took a left out of the harbor into San Juan Channel. The guests were enthusiastic and many seemed very interested to learn about the conservation efforts being carried out...

Jordan | August 18, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 trip

What a beautiful evening trip in the San Juan Islands! As the sun started to set behind the picturesque clouds, we headed out of Friday Harbor to search for our whales. We headed south through the San Juan Channel and towards Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Before we reached Canadian waters, we found the whales! Suddenly we were surrounded by Southern Resident whales all around our boat! It was so exciting seeing the magnificent...

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and even better, Jpod had just came in yesterday after a few days of being gone. Captain Pete, naturalist Rachel and I️ were really excited to get out on the water although a very chilly day for August and a bit rainy. As we left Friday harbor, there were reports of the orca on the west side moving up the San Juan coast, so we decided to round the northern tip of the island and head south to encounter them. 

Headed up the San Juan...

Jordan | August 15, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00 trip

The morning was a beautiful start to the day as the fog, that has been heavy on our sea for the past week, burned away as the sun came out. Captain Gabe and I heard several reports of whales so we were excited to head out into open waters today.

We zipped out of Friday Harbor and headed south through the San Juan Channel. We boated through Cattle Pass and checked out a few Steller sea lions that were lounging on the Whale Rocks...