Jordan | July 6, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 & 5:30 trips

Captain Gabe, Naturalist Alexandria and I all set out on two trips to Canada today! Even though the voyages were long, Captain Gabe was determined to find the whales and make some wonderful memories for our guests.

On the first, trip we headed up around the west coast of Saturna Island and through Georgenson Pass. This area was incredibly beautiful as we passed by some deer grazing by the rocky shore and we spotted some bald...

Captain Gabe and I headed down to the docks on the busiest day of the year in Friday Harbor- 4th of July! Unfortunately, we had not heard of any whales in our area yet this morning. With smiles on our faces and high hopes, we gathered our guests and headed up the San Juan Channel to see what whales we would be able to find this busy day on the water! At least hoping to spot some majestic bald eagles on this United States Independence Day. As we approached Flat Top Island, we stopped...

Captain Mike, Naturalist Alexandria and I were excited to be on the water on this VERY hot summer day. We had not heard of any reports in our area yet this morning, so we were a little anxious leaving the harbor with a full boat of hopeful guests. Some other boats had found a humpback on the West side of San Juan Island, but we were hoping that we would be able to find our own whales, so we headed up North towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. The whole way up the channel, our eyes were...

Jordan | July 5, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

We had such a fantastic day on the water! It started out as one of the warmest days of the summer, so people were feeling pretty toasty in their adventure suits as we sat on the dock. Luckily it cooled down as our speedy boat created its own wind and that cool sea air swirled around us. Captain Mike and I heard whispers of whales in Canada so we voyaged north!

Just as we reached the southern tip of Moresby Island, we suddenly found two...

Jordan | July 1, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

On this second trip of the day, we were really lucky that it stopped raining and the sun came out! Captain Mike and I were happy to hear of whales up in Canada, so we sped off north. We wound through Canadian islands until we hit Vancouver Island, then headed north along the west side of Salt Spring Island.

And then we found a pod of whales! We recognized them as the T65As! As one of my favorite pods, they have a tiny baby who is only a...

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...

Jordan | June 29, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset trip

What a lovely sunset tour today! Captain Mike and I set out at 5:30 from Friday Harbor with a fairly decent idea of where we could find orcas!

We received reports of a transient whale pod up in West Sound, so we headed north through the San Juan Channel towards those waters. However, as soon as we grew closer, the whales took off in the opposite direction! Luckily, we were able to catch up and we met the whales in the Upright...

This afternoon the Sea Lion made a long trek up into the Strait of Georgia where we encountered the T65A’s socializing.  We left Friday Harbor with reports of orcas near Point Roberts, not far from the city of Vancouver.  We journeyed our way up to that area and on the way we saw some harbor porpoise.  Once up in the strait we watched the whales as they appeared to be socializing, we even got to see one whale spyhop out of the water.  Because we went such a distance to be able to see...

Jordan | June 26, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip

Another lovely day began with leaving Friday Harbor at our newly scheduled time of 1:30 pm. Captain Mike, Naturalist Erick and I headed south through the San Juan Channel and past Cattle Pass.

A group of giant Steller sealions were crawling high up on the rocks at Whale Rocks and then jumping off into the water, making a huge splash! There were also some harbor seals down on the lower rocks near the waters edge. Due to the seals bone...

Captain Pete and I were taking off for our second trip of the day along with a handful of cheerful guests. We had been with some transient orcas earlier today who had swum out of our reach for our sunset trip, so we were hoping to find a humpback hanging out nearby. We headed down the San Juan Channel as the wind started to pick up and cause the waters to get a bit choppy. Once we reached Whale Rocks, we had to stop and say hi to our Steller Sea lions who seem to have chosen to...