Laura C. | 6-21-2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am

Today was a gorgeous day aboard M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe leading our voyage!  We headed south and were lucky right off the bat, finding harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions and a pair of bald eagles all sharing some small rocky islands right near San Juan Island.  We all were able to appreciate the sheer size of a hefty male sea lion as he shimmied his way towards the edge of the rocks, surrounded by basking females.  The harbor seals...

Laura C. | 6-20-2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 pm

Our second trip on the 5:30 whale watch was spectacular!  We headed north and found T124As traveling right around Saturna Island!  The water was glass calm and as we were the only vessel in the area, the surrounding waters were quite peaceful!  We passed a couple of bald eagles perched on a surrounding rock formation and even spotted a juvenile bald eagle!  The calf of the T124A family was quite active and we were able to see most of the...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/17/19 | 12:00pm

What an unbelievably special day out on the water! The sun was shining brightly in the sky and filled everyone with excitement immediately. Captain Erick, naturalist Piper and I took our largest boat, the M/V Sealion out of Friday harbor towards promising prospects up north. We went up through the San Juan Channel, past Flattop Island and into Boundary Pass.

With Canada in the distance, we spotted our whales off the north point of Stuart...

Jordan | M/V Kestrel | 06/15/19 | 10:30 and 3:00pm

Today was such a gorgeous day out on the water! The sky was completely cloudless as the sun shone bright overhead, making guests hesitant to put on our giant exposure suits. But, they quickly figured out that even with the sun, it was cold out on the water! Captain Gabe and I and our new friends jumped on the Kestrel and sped off towards adventure.

We headed north through the San Juan Channel, immediately on the lookout for any...

M/V Kestrel | 11:00 AM | Naturalist Alexandria | June 14th, 2019

What a fantastic day today turned out to be!  We loaded onto M/V Kestrel, excited for the day ahead!  We met Captain Gabe down on the dock and eagerly boarded onto the vessel.  As we headed out we didn’t have any firms reports to go off of, but Captain Gabe had heard a rumor over the radio of a family of orcas that was spotted off the West Side of San Juan Island.

We headed south down San Juan Channel to see if we...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/13/19 | 12:00pm

Today started as a beautiful day in Friday Harbor! The sun was shining, and it truly felt like one of the first real summer day here in the San Juan Islands. Captain Sarah, Naturalist Erick, Naturalist Laura and I took our beautiful boat, the Sea Lion, out for a day of adventure! We were incredibly lucky to hear multiple reports of whales. So, we set out to find whales, excited for what the day had to offer.

We headed northeast through...

Naturalist Alexandria | M/V Sea Lion | June 11, 2019 | 5:30 PM

What an awesome evening tour we had today!  We were with orcas earlier today for our noon tour, but had heard on the radio once we got back that the orcas we were had headed out of the area by the time we were ready for our sunset trip.  This is always possible, one time of day for a trip isn’t better than the other, but our whales here can swim over 100 miles in one day, so it is always possible that we have them for one...

Erin | M/V Kestrel | Tuesday, June 11, 2019 | 11:00 AM

Today was a stunning day out in the Salish Sea. We left Friday Harbor and travelled north toward some orca reports. As we got closer to Spieden Island, we got some amazing looks at a bald eagle perched in the treetops. It had its white plumage, which means it was an adult. We continued along the coast of the island and saw some Mouflon sheep! They were down by the water's edge eating algae off of the rocks. There were about...

Erin | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, June 8, 2019 | 11:00 AM

Today was an absolutely wonderful day out on the water. We left the harbor and the sun was shining! Within seven minutes of leaving the harbor, we came across a pod of killer whales. This is not a common occurence, so the crew was equally as excited as the passengers. The whales were diving in a zig-zagging pattern, there was some circling behavior by some of the younger whales, and there were lots of birds in the area. It was...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 06/07/19 | 5:30 Sunset

As we gathered for our tour, I noticed how wonderfully small our group was! We definitely were lucky to have lots of space to walk around the boat and chat with new friends! Captain Gabe and I took the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed off in search of some wildlife!

Luckily, we heard reports from other whale watching boats right off the bat! So, we sped off towards the east. We had a fantastic tour of all the islands as we wound...