Logan Stecker | Kestrel |16th of July 2025 | 1400

Today was a great day for seals! So many pups being as cute as possible all throughout our voyage. And as hoped for, a great day for whales as well!

Stop 1: Spieden Island 

Driving along Spieden, we located multiple Bald Eagles near a large nest in an isolated patch of trees near the shore. This barren island has been shaped by winter stores making the south shore a yellow grassland with a few rugged trees. At the end of this island, we stopped...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 14th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

While every day is orca day for us, today was officially World Orca Day and we had the best time with some Bigg’s/Transient Orcas this afternoon! When we left the dock, the closest reported sighting was far north in Active Pass heading towards the Strait of Georgia, so we decided to quickly head in that direction. We made a brief stop to view some harbor seals in San Juan Channel, and then continued into Canadian Waters. We cruised through...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Osprey | July 13th, 2025 | 12:30 PM

The whales were a bit further away today, but they definitely made the trek worth it! When we left the dock, we had reports of Bigg’s Killer Whales pretty far south in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Since these were the closest sightings at this point, we decided to head straight that way for our best chance of catching up with them. We viewed harbor seals along San Juan Channel, got beautiful views of Cattle Point Lighthouse, and began...

Kelly | M/V Kestrel | Sunday, July 13th 2025 | 2:00 PM

So much commotion as we left the harbor aboard the M/V Kestrel today! The ferry was leaving its port along with sea planes both departing and arriving. A busy hot summer day here on San Juan Island! It was a nice change to suddenly be in quiet water heading south down San Juan Channel. Our first stop of the day was Goose Island! Per usual, this island was absolutely teaming with harbor seals, taking full advantage of low tide. After cruising...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 11th, 2025 | 2:00 PM

Captain Brian and I knew it was going to be an epic day on the water, but we couldn’t have predicted the trip we had! There were many different whale sightings in the region, so when we left the harbor we were excited to head towards some of those reports. We began traveling south, hoping to catch up to a report of two killer whales heading towards Salmon Bank. We zoomed through Cattle Pass and continued into the more open water, with...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 10th, 2025 | 2:00 PM 

When we left the dock, we started off with our original plan to head south to catch up with some whale reports. As we began traveling south in San Juan Channel, we quickly changed our course to the north as the whales we were planning to find were reported traveling much more quickly north from the west side of San Juan Island. We decided to head around the island that way to increase our chances of catching up, so the adventure began...

Logan Stecker | M/V Kestrel | July 9th of 2025 | 14:00

Wind, waves, and dreary weather lifted almost instantly after leaving Friday harbor for a day of glorious wildlife searching. 

Avoiding dreadful waves to the south, we went north toward the Pender islands and into Canada.

Along the way we watched many a bald eagle greets us along the northern shore of Spieden. These Eagles kept our spirits high as we went, flying tree to tree. 

Our first point of interest was the Turn Point Lighthouse, the most...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Tuesday, July 8th, 2025 | 2:00 PM 

Today was my first day back to work after a five day Fourth of July vacation, and what a brilliant welcome back it was! Our Adventure Whale Watch & Wildlife tour had an incredible encounter with the Bigg’s Killer Whale family the T046B’s. The M/V Kestrel departed Friday Harbor and headed north into San Juan Channel. We made our way into President‘s Channel, between Orcas and Waldron, making a pit stop at Parker Reef to view some harbor...

Logan | Kestrel | July 6th of 2025 | 1400 tour

Today we were immediately greeted in Friday Harbor by a cutie-patootie of a Harbor Seal which marked the start of our luck fueled venture on our speedy vessel driven by Captain Eric. 

Stop 1: Cattle Point

The beautiful sparkling waters backdropped on a most magnificent island of Gulls, Cormorants, and auks. The cormorant nests were tall, and many cormorants stood drying their wings on the rocks. Orange sunburst lichens grew atop the rocks presumably...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 6th, 2025 | 10:00 AM 

Our morning adventure set out with a few rumors of whale sightings towards the further parts of our range, but no boats were with any yet. As one of the first boats on the water, we began our search towards the north and cruised through President’s Channel along Waldron Island. We found lots of harbor seals on many of the small islands, stopping at Skipjack to get a closer look at them. There were so many in all different color variations...