Naturalist Sarah | 06/22/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 02:00pm

M/V Kestrel is such an incredible conservation tool and education platform. Every time I am scheduled for a day working on its open air decks I’m excited about the potential for encountering a plethora of wildlife to share with our guests. On Friday it was no exception… we were able to cover a lot of ground and see more wildlife than a conventional whale watch boat in our 3-4 allotted time.

We started our afternoon cruise by...

Naturalist Sarah | 06/22/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 10:00am

What a whirlwind of a trip! Leaving Friday Harbor, Captain gabe and I had no reports of orcas… not unusual for our morning trips! Since we work with a spotting network spread out through the region, usually our sightings start rolling in as boats leave their harbors. We decided to leave our slip and head north through President’s Channel towards what we call the Outer Islands of the San Juans: Patos, Matia, and Sucia Islands...

Our 2pm trip today aboard M/V Kestrel was truly one for the books!  From the beginning I suspected that this was going to be a great day!  We had beautiful weather and a fantastic group- everyone was smiling, excited to get going, and of course even participated in the obligatory laughing at my jokes- like I said it was the Dream Team and Dream Trip from the get go….

But no one have fully prepared for what a fantastic trip it would prove to be!  As we headed out we knew that we were...

Today was a gorgeous morning on M/V Kestrel!

We took to the waters this morning at 10am in search of whales!  Captain Mike had gotten a report of Transient Orcas up North near Tumbo Island!  Luckily Kestrel is a incredible vessel- the boat equivalent of a well bread race horse shall we say? Captain Mike and myself, along with our incredible guests were up for the adventure and we headed north! 

On our way we were treated to some adorable harbor porpoise views as they frolicked in San...

Today we left Friday Harbor with reports of transient orcas in the southern part of Strait of Juan de Fuca near Port Townsend.  We headed south of San Juan Island and came across the T137’s, a family of four mammal eating whales.  When we first arrived we saw the whales enjoying some prey-sharing time.  This is after whales have completed a kill and move on to tearing the carcass apart and sharing it among the family members.  We were also lucky enough to see some surface social...

Guests aboard M/V Kestrel were treated to a fantastic day on the water yesterday, as Transient Orca pods T49A’s and T65A’s all hung out swimming around the south park of Spieden Island.  We saw lot’s of tail lobs from these oras, and even some breaches by some of the smaller kiddo orcas! 

We started out the trip suiting up in our very fashionable exposure suits, and heading down to board M/V Kestrel.  After Captain Gabe talked to us about safety and Kestrel we boarded and began out...

Captain Mike, our excited guests, and I took off down the San Juan Channel on a peaceful Saturday afternoon. Firstly, Captain Mike went through the inside of Turn Island and came out at a harbor seal haul out to observe some seals who happened to have some pups with them! We then continued down the channel and as we approached Cattle Pass, with surprisingly calm waters, we saw some sea lions posted up on Whale rocks. Some of these sea lions were busy cooling off in the water and...

Today we left Friday Harbor with no reports of whales in the area, which is not an uncommon way to start our day.  Just as we were exiting the harbor we got a report of some transient orcas about 10 minutes away from us.  We came across the T137’s hunting what looked to be like a porpoise.  Things were just getting exciting as we got there with lots of white water and jumping going on.  We then watched the orcas slowly begin to share their food and travel northwest.  We watched as...

Captain Mike and I were up early today and excited to see what was out there! Southern resident orcas had been hanging around the islands for the past couple of days and we could not wait to get a better look at them! We, along with our 11 smiling guests, headed down San Juan Channel to go look for some orcas. We first took a good look at the South end of Lopez and saw some harbor seals hauled out along with 3 bald eagles perched up in the nearby trees and rocks. We then headed...

Sarah | 06/14/2018 | M/V Kestrel | 02:00pm

M/V Kestrel is our newest vessel in our fleet of four, and she has consistently proven to be an amazing tool over the last couple year of use. Going into her third summer as a part of our fleet I am excited to see how we can continue to use this incredible boat to better our guest experience. We are consistently impressed by the smoothness of the ride and just the sheer distance that we can cover on this boat.

Yesterday’s tour was a great...