Erick | Friday, May 10, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00AM

Out here as the weather is getting sunnier and warmer, we are starting to run our Adventure Tours aboard M/V Kestrel. Captain Gabe and I took an excited, adventurous group out to find all the amazing creatures in the Salish Sea. We started by going north on the flat, calm waters of San Juan Channel. We made our first stop at Green Point on Spieden Island to see the group of Steller Sea Lions gathered out there. They were sleepily...

[Sarah | 05/04/2019 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00am and 2:00pm]

Today’s two adventure tours were super special. We got to spend the whole day exploring the Salish Sea looking for all sorts of wildlife and enjoy some incredible spring weather.

Our 10:00am trip left the dock with a rumor of killer whales around the Strait of Georgia. Reported by some fisherman, there were no commercial whale watch boats with the orcas, so we had to go on a search pattern to find them. We motored up north...

Naturalist Alexandria | Friday, May 8th | M/V Kestrel

What a fantastic day it was today on the water! As we suited up and got ready to board M/V Kestrel, Captain Gabe and I had no idea how perfect the day would prove to be!

Once our group was all suited up in their exposure suits and all boarded onto the vessel we started heading out into San Juan Channel.  Initially we were operating under a report of potential whales far north from us- well into Canadian water.  We started heading...

Erick | Monday, March 18, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 12:00 

Spring is here! On this warm and sunny day Captain Brian and I took a great small group out on Kestrel to see what wildlife was out enjoying the sunshine too. We headed out of Friday Harbor and almost saw blows immediately! They were right off the shore of Brown Island. We approached this group of whales and soon saw that they were Bigg’s Orcas. Orcas aka Killer Whales are divided into different ‘ecotypes’. These ecotypes are...

[Sunday, 10/7/18, Noon - M/V Kestrel - Erick]

This Sunday was another classic Pacific Northwest fall day. The water was glassy calm, the rain came down in a calm almost imperceptible drizzle, and the evergreen forest canopy scraped the low hanging clouds. Capt. Brian and I headed out with a great group from all over the world on M/V Kestrel to find some amazing animals out in the Salish Sea! We headed north and very soon found a group of Orcas around Green Point off of Spieden Island...

What a great trip we had on board M/V Kestrel!  Captain Brian (complete with the adorable Co-Captain Aurelia AKA Capt. Brian Jr.) and myself along with a great group headed out to the West Side to see what we could find!

We stopped by some Stellar Sea Lions on Whale Rocks and then continued past Cattle Point over to the West Side.  We were lucky enough to have the privilege of hanging out with three different groups of Transient, or Biggs Killer Whales, all within a mile or so. 

It...

September 29- M/V Kestrel- 2:00 pm

It was a beautiful day out on the water!  We had some of our well-known transient orcas just North of Lopez Island.  We left Friday Harbor and headed that direction.  We watched as the T65A’s finished up a harbor seal meal.  We even got to see them do a few spyhops!  We decided to circumnavigate Lopez Island to see what else we could find.  We got to see a juvenile bald eagle and some of our impressive Steller’s sea lions.  After going around the...

Sarah | 09/27/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00am Charter

We had a marvelous morning out on the water with a private charter. We love getting private groups out on the boats because we can tailor the trip to exactly what the group wants! On Thursday that meant whales!

Captain Gabe and I loaded up our guests and headed left out of Friday Harbor, pointing north for Canadian waters. M/V Kestrel is an amazing tool for whale watching, because no matter where we have reports of whales, we can...

What a day we had on M/V Kestrel! Captain Gabe and I were very excited to hit the water with our trip this beautiful Monday afternoon!  We started out with confirmed reports of Resident Orcas on the West Side of San Juan Island- so we were very optimistic about it being a great trip from the get go!

As we headed south down San Juan Channel we stopped and checked out some incredible Steller Sea Lions who were hauled out on the rocks growling, swimming and putting on quite the show for...

Sarah | 09/21/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 01:00pm

We had an amazing day on the water, traveling further south than Captain Mike and I had ever taken one of our boats before, and most importantly, saw killer whales! When we left Friday Harbor we had no reports of killer whales in the area, but days on the water can change moment by moment.

Leaving Friday Harbor, our plan was originally to head north past Shaw and Orcas Islands, up towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. When we have no reports...