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...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 4th, 2025 | 2:00 pm

Our afternoon adventure trip was full of surprises, even as we returned to some of the same whales we had viewed in the morning. Before leaving the harbor, we spotted a harbor seal swimming around, so we knew luck would be on our side once we actually departed. Since we already knew of a few families in our region, we left Friday Harbor and traveled east to where we had last seen whales a few hours previously. We traveled along the ferry...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 4th, 2025 | 10:00 am

Every morning we start our search for whales all over again, so our morning trips are especially adventurous as we are one of the first boats to leave the harbor. When we left this morning, we expected to be joining the search, but were surprised to hear from other boats that a few groups of whales had already been spotted! Since it was still early and these sightings were further to the east, we decided to head straight over to maximize our...

Olivia Ellman | M/V Kestrel | July 3rd, 2025 | 2:00 pm

When we left the harbor on today’s adventure trip, no one could have predicted the day we would have. There were reports of multiple groups of Bigg’s Killer Whales at the northernmost part of our range in the Strait of Georgia, so we weren’t sure if we would make it to them or not. Since these whales were so far, we headed towards Canadian waters not planning to make any stops. While it was a trek to get up there, it was so beautiful...

Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Saturday, June 28th, 2025 | 2:00 pm

Today we were spoiled for choice. Before even leaving the dock we knew of at least four different groups of Bigg’s Killer Whales within our range. They were spread out, each group in a different waterway, but all at an achievable distance. We don’t often have such an abundance of choices, it was hard to choose where to go. Well not too hard… Our first stop was an obvious choice, as the T123’s were found right outside of Friday Harbor in...

Logan | June 26th, 2025 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00pm

Despite clouds and rain, our adventure was not dampened. After gearing up in suits and onboarding the M/V Kestrel, our party found quite a few Harbor Porpoise on our first jaunt Southward. Then we ventured further—encountering Harbor Seals hauled out on Goose Island on our merry way. Reaching Whale Rocks, we spotted some large and elegant Steller’s Sea lions on top of the exposed-out crop. Despite wanting to spend forever looking at these beautiful...