Captain Mike, our excited guests, and I took off down the San Juan Channel on a peaceful Saturday afternoon. Firstly, Captain Mike went through the inside of Turn Island and came out at a harbor seal haul out to observe some seals who happened to have some pups with them! We then continued down the channel and as we approached Cattle Pass, with surprisingly calm waters, we saw some sea lions posted up on Whale rocks. Some of these sea lions were busy cooling off in the water and...

Captain Pete and I were on our second trip of the day ready to be out on the water during the golden hour and hopefully encounter some animals! With very excited guests, we headed up North to see if we could find the same orcas we were with during our day trip. Apparently, these guys were covering lots of ground and moving North quick. We were worried that they would get away from us but decided to go up that way regardless. We were hopeful that we would get a good look at them...

Jordan | June 22, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 noon

What an amazing day out on the water! Captain Mike, Naturalist Rachel and I voyaged out of Friday Harbor towards a report of whales traveling along the east side of Lopez Island. We traveled north up the Upright channel where we saw two bald eagles perching in trees near their giant nest! It was very cool to see this pair, mated for life, nestled within the huge trees that they called home.

We then traveled down the east side of...

Jordan | June 21, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00

The day boasted a brilliant sunshine but also a bombardment of wind. And with wind comes waves which made today quite the adventure! Captain Mike took our boat up north through the San Juan Channel to Boundary Pass in between Waldron and Stuart islands.  

Off of Turn Point on Stuart we found a group of Bigg’s orca whales! In fact, we caught these T65As amidst a hunting session! Diving erratically and swimming all around through the huge...

Jordan | June 20, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

Captain Pete, Alexandria and I journeyed out of Friday Harbor for the 5:30 sunset tour on our quest to find the whales! The M/V Sea Lion headed north up the San Juan Channel, through the Spieden Channel to the West coast of Henry Island.

Here we found a group of Southern Resident orca whales! In fact, J pod was having a wonderful time scanning the shoreline for their salmon. We watched the whales jump and spy hop and slap the water...

Waking up to a windy forest and a text about how windy it would be out on the channel today, I had no high expectations for whale watching. I arrived at the dock and knew we probably weren’t going to make it to the West side of the island The Resident Killer whales were spotted there last but due to the unsheltered waters it would be too rough for us to get there. Instead, I spoke with Captain Gabe and he had other orcas in mind, a Transient pod was just a short drive out of the...

Gabe and I were ready to take off on a sunny and warm Sunday afternoon. We had a half full boat and the guests were enjoying the warm breeze and bright view of the islands as we headed up the San Juan Channel. We had been with a group of transient orcas, who have been hanging around the islands for the past month or so, all day and now we were headed out to catch up to them again. They had traveled all the way from South end of Lopez and up past Waldron Island in just a few hours we...

It was the warmest evening we had so far this season and the sunset tour was just about to kick off with some reports of killer whales East of Orcas Island. We didn’t yet know what group of whales were over there, but we decided to head that way and find out! The wind was amazingly warm and most of the guests were gladly sitting at the vow. We had some excited guests and even a birthday on board! We decided to head towards Rosario Strait going up Upright Channel and then through...

Jordan | June 18, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 sunset

We had such a great group of people today! Everyone was full of enthusiasm and eagerness to see wildlife. It felt like the first real day of summer; sitting on the boat by the dock, it was actually hot! The sun shone brightly as we headed out of Friday Harbor for our 5:30 sunset tour. Captain Gabe led us south through the San Juan channel, past Cattle Point and into the shallow waters of the Salmon Bank.

Along the way, we found a...

Captain Mike and I were up early today and excited to see what was out there! Southern resident orcas had been hanging around the islands for the past couple of days and we could not wait to get a better look at them! We, along with our 11 smiling guests, headed down San Juan Channel to go look for some orcas. We first took a good look at the South end of Lopez and saw some harbor seals hauled out along with 3 bald eagles perched up in the nearby trees and rocks. We then headed...