Wednesday, July 4th | M/V Sea Lion

After catching the Friday Harbor 4th of July parade, Captain Pete, naturalist Jordan and I were pumped to get out on the water and see what the day had in store! We boarded the M/V Sea Lion and heard a report of a humpback whale milling about near Lawson Reef on the southeast side of Lopez Island! We made our way south towards Cattle Pass where we found a large haul-out of harbor seals soaking in the sun before the clouds rolled in. Looking down...

[Tuesday, 6/27/18 - M/V Sea Lion - 5:30PM - Naturalist Erick]

On Tuesday, Captain Mike and myself were on our own with a smaller group of guests on the sunset tour - aka my favorite tour. We went south through San Juan Channel and Cattle Pass to eventually head towards the southern end of Rosario Strait. We were pointed in this direction to look for a Humpback Whale that we had seen during the afternoon trip. On our way there we stopped at Whale Rocks in Cattle Pass to look at the...

Captain Mike, Rachel, and I boarded the M/V Sea Lion today with a great group of guests! Today there was a report of some Bigg’s killer whales just outside of Friday Harbor so as we boated into the sunny San Juan Channel, we headed north. Along the way, we came across a bald eagle’s nest, occupied by an adult and a juvenile which were peering down onto the shores of their island at a group of harbor seals which had made themselves comfortable on the low-lying rocks. We carried on and...

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...

[Wednesday, 6/13/18 - M/V Kestrel - 10:00AM - Naturalist Erick]

Today we had another ‘June-ary’ day as the morning started out with rain but broke to a delightful sunny day. Captain Mike and I took a smaller group of folks out to search for all the fun morning critters out in the Salish Sea. We headed north through San Juan and Spieden Channels until we made it to the other side of Boundary Pass near South Pender Island. Here there was a large group of Bigg’s Orcas feeding and...

[Monday, 6/11/18 - M/V Kestrel - 2:00PM - Naturalist Erick]

Happy Monday Everyone! We hope your weekend was as good as ours, and it’s only going to get better this week! This Monday afternoon Captain Gabe and I took a super fun group of people out on a trip aboard M/V Kestrel. We started by heading north through San Juan Channel. We traveled around the northern side of San Juan and Henry Islands. Just as we rounded Henry Island we saw some blows in the distance around Kellett...

[Sarah – 05/26/2018 – M/V Kestrel – 10:00am]

I love starting my mornings with a piping hot cup of coffee and looking at early whale reports. Sipping on my stiff mug of black coffee, I knew we were in for a treat on our morning trip on M/V Kestrel from Friday Harbor. One of my very favorite families of killer whales was in the area, and pretty close!

Captain Mike and I loaded up our group of enthusiastic guests and headed south out of the mouth of the harbor, looking for wildlife. We...

June 10, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 5:30 Sunset 

Today the 5:30 sunset tour hosted a small group of enthusiastic whale lovers! Captain Pete and I heard reports of orcas heading north along the east side of San Juan Island so we decided to head around the north end of the island and down the east side to meet them.

As we neared Lime Kiln, the first spouts were detected! Eventually we realized that multiple groups were swimming around the boat: the T86s, T100s and T101s. These beautiful...

June 09, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 Noon 

What a fantastic trip we had today! The weather was super cooperative and shone sunlight on our entire journey. Captain Gabe, Mariana and I were all very excited to start the day and set off on the voyage to find whales.

Coming out of Friday Harbor for the 12:00 trip, we headed south towards Cattle Pass. As we boated through Griffin Bay and neared Cattle Point (the southern point of San Juan), we spotted the orca whales! Multiple groups of...

[Sunday, 6/10/18 - M/V Sea Lion - Noon - Naturalist Erick]

On Sunday, Captain Pete, myself, and one of the new Naturalists, Jordan, left with a super group aboard M/V Sea Lion to search the Salish Sea for all it’s wonderful critters. First, we made our way towards the outer islands of the San Juan archipelago. These Islands are where the U.S. and Canada border is located and are more sparsely populated then the four main islands a little bit south. Just north of PAtos Island with...