Meaning that it was calm and relaxed and just a chill day on the water.  L pod is known for being a little more relaxed in their activities and that energy carries over to the whole trip.  A calf did treat us to a goodbye breach though.  Our cruise started out with some excitement when a bald eagle flew over the M/V Sea Lion just after we pulled out of our slip.  Despite the sea gulls that were trying to chase it away the eagle dropped down to the water, talons extended, and pulled...

Softly we sat and watched the whales about 700 yards away from us. At first we could only see white wake, their bodies like boats zooming through the water. As we waited, their dorsal fins began to loom in the distance. We followed them as they swam parallel to us west along the south side of Stuart Island, reuniting with their pod at Turn Point Light House.  It was a slow but satiating afternoon as we watched the orcas loll about the land, hugging the shore. Bright, sunny, peaceful...

Ok, not really, but wouldn't that be cool.  We did spend time with the orcas though and had a lovely afternoon on the west side of San Juan Island.  There was Ruffles, our big old male, some of his other J pod mates and lots of swimming going on.  Not every encounter with the orcas is a circus of breaches and spyhops, but any day that we spend with them is a good one and good days is what we are all about.

Even days without orcas are good days, because there is always something...

It has been a few days since I have visited the blogosphere, but that does not mean I have been sitting on my laurels doing nothing.  We are heavily into "The Season" now and I have been out seeing orcas on a daily basis.  Yesterday it was the afternoon trip on the M/V Kittiwake and then the sunset trip on the M/V Sea Lion.  Today it was the M/V Sea Lion again, this time with Casey and Capt. Mike.  Each day has been a different experience and a lovely time on the water.  When the...

It was an awesome day in the San Juan Islands today and we had a superb trip.  The orcas disappeared into the oceanic netherworld some time in the night, so we went off in search of bigger and better intrigues.  After motoring down San Juan Channel, around Goose and Long Islands and Whale Rocks, Capt. Mike took Casey, the guests and me on a whirlwind tour around San Juan Island.  We saw porpoises, eagles and sea birds.  There were beautiful islands, homes and waterways for us to...

NOAA Confirms Presence of Subsea Oil Plumes in Gulf By:  Lea Winerman The federal government confirmed Tuesday that subsea clouds of dispersed oil have been found at least 40 miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The finding, which confirms what some independent scientists first reported last month, has renewed concerns over the effects of the oil spill on deep-sea life. "NOAA is confirming the presence of very low concentrations of subsurface...

It was a chore to find them, but I finally got to spend some time with J pod.  This season is starting out slowly and the orcas are still not back in the area full-time like we are used to.  That means that we spend a lot of time searching and seeing other wildlife on the way.  Today though we knew where the animals had been spotted, but once we got there it became clear why the reports had seemed so sporadic.  J pod was scattered in ones and twos over several miles with whale...

It must be since Capt. Hook just arrived!  That is right, we spent the day with good old Capt. Hook and, in this story, his jolly gals.  And we did not have to go more than twenty minutes down San Juan Channel before we met up with them.  Transient orcas T40, or Capt. Hook as he is affectionately known, and two females were traveling north up through Griffin Bay on the east side of San Juan Island today.  It was a quick trip from the dock for us and the rest of the whale watch fleet...

Okay, well it was actually all of us on the M/V Sea Lion that were doing the rocking and rolling, but I am sure that the orcas were having some fun too.  Especially if all of the breaches by the calf were any indication of their state of mind.  The waters were rough, (unusual for the San Juan Islands), but our guests were tougher and we prevailed in the end.  The orcas were spread all along the south end of San Juan Island in little clusters that were hard to find until we stumbled...

It was whales again today, but this time it was two humpbacks along the west side of San Juan Island.  That makes three different whale species in two days spotted here in the San Juan Islands!  Wow, what a cool place.  It is exceptionally cool when you think about the fact that humpbacks are rare here around the islands.  Normally, if they come into the Salish Sea they do not make it past Victoria Harbor.  Today was our day though and we took advantage of it.  And, as if seeing the...