Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Friday, May 9th | 2:00 PM

Today we had a special encounter with Humpback Whale BCX1057, also known as Divot. Divot is a 22-year-old female North Pacific Humpback from the Maui breeding population. Divot is the first (presumed) calf of the legendary BCY0324 “Big Mama.” Big Mama has been observed in the Salish Sea for the past 20 years. Big Mama was one of the first humpbacks that reclaimed this region as viable for migration and feeding post whaling era. Commercial Whaling...

Maxx K. | M/V Sea Lion| 04/25/2022 | 1:30pm

    The day began with sun! 

Sea Lion took a left out of Friday Harbor today, up and around towards rumors of Bigg’s Killer Whales that had been spotted earlier in the morning traveling up San Juan Islands western shores. Now of course, these whales were going to remain rumors until we saw them ourselves. As we know, whales are crazy and they are absolutely wild. If they wanted to disappear, they absolutely could! 

    We were not...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 04/17/2021 |1:00pm

What a fantastic day! It started off incredibly warm and sunny as the bright blue sky promised a great trip no matter what we ended up seeing.

Captain Pete and I jumped on the Sea Lion with our excited guests and boated out towards sea. Heading up the San Juan Channel, we passed Shaw and Orcas Islands and rounded the northern coastline of San Juan. Continuing back around, we headed south down the Haro Strait.

We started to see boats in the...

Olivia | M/V Sea Lion | Septmeber 28th, 2020 | 13:00

Today was probably the clearest day we have had in over a month. No clouds were to be found in the blue, sunny skies and our old friend Mount Baker stood tall waving hello after a few weeks sitting behind clouds, smoke, and lots of fog. It was already setting out to be a gorgeous, fall day out boating in the San Juan Islands with a little twist of summer on top. Our migrating Humpback Whales have spent most of the summer foraging...

Olivia | M/V Kestrel | July 24th, 2020 | 10:00

We started off the trip by being one of the first boats out on the water for the day. That being said, we decided to start the trip by scanning some major bodies of water such as the Haro Strait. These tend to be hot spots for larger cetaceans and a great place to start. Additionally, we left the dock with a shore report of a potential Humpback Whale north of Lime Kiln Lighthouse. Unable to find this rumored Baleen Whale, we headed north...

Olivia | July 17th, 2019 | M/V Kestrel | 11:00am / 3:00pm

What an adventurous Adventure Tour on our M/V Kestrel with Captain Gabe! We had a morning trip with 22 passengers and an evening private charter with a fabulous work group for their team bonding. For both the 11:00am and 3:00pm trips, we saw the same Cetaceans within our waters.

In the morning we decided to head north around San Juan Island and eventually end up in Haro Strait where our first reported whale sighting was. On...

Jordan | M/V Sea Lion | 07/11/19 | 1:30pm

WOW! Today was unbelievable. We saw so much wildlife, it was fantastic.

Captain Erick, Naturalist Piper and I took our vessel, the Sea Lion out of Friday Harbor and headed up north through the San Juan Channel. We boated all the way up to Boundary Pass near Moresby Island where we saw orca whales!

Here we saw our first pod of orcas identified as the T77s! This group consisted of 5 whales including one of the newest members of the entire...

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...

Erick | Saturday, April, 20, 2019 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00 

Happy Earth Day! 

This was a sunny Earth Day out in the San Juan Islands. Captain Pete, Alex, and myself took a large group out to celebrate the day and find some other great denizens of Earth out there. We headed north through San Juan Channel and into President Channel where we had a few Bald Eagles soar above us. After we passed Waldron Island we stopped by Bare Island to look at the Harbor Seals that were trying to escape...

Jordan | July 18, 2018 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 trip

Today was a lovely day with our beloved whales! The sun came out and we left the docks with high hopes of seeing some great wildlife! Captain Gabe and I heard reports of whales lounging about within the northern islands and along the Canadian border so we headed towards them!

We voyaged north up the San Juan Channel and passed beneath Spieden channel. We stopped here to see mouflon sheep grazing along the hillside! There even was a...