Lauren Tschirhart | August 16th, 2026 | M/V Kestrel | 2:00 pm
After the excitement of our 10:00 am tour, I could not wait to get back out on the water to see what the whales were up to. Our 2:00 pm Adventure Tour departed Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel. We cruised northwest through Spieden Channel, viewing an abundance of wildlife along the shoreline. We saw mouflon sheep, Steller Sea Lions, harbor seals and bald eagles. We then made our way into the Haro Strait, aimed towards Turn Point Lighthouse on Stuart Island. We passed the lighthouse and entered Boundary Pass, trying to decide what our next move should be.
The T-Party of whales we observed earlier had started to split up and were zig zagging all across Boundary. We decided to catch up with the T035A’s and observed them as they headed south towards the north side of Stuart. There we witnessed them once again link up with the T049A’s. We watched these two families cruise tight to shore, seemingly being social. We even got to witness one of the whale's spyhop, which is one of my favorite behaviors to observe. At one point we were even able to turn off our engines and just listen to them breathe. We watched as these whales swam away in the distance, and then slowly departed ourselves. Before making our way back to the dock, we decided to make one last stop. We cruised northwest over the Canadian border to link up with the T019’s. The T019’s had been traveling with the T035A’s and T049A’s earlier today, but had broken off before we got there. Our guests were delighted to observe this family of three, as T019B/ Galiano and T19C/ Spouter are fully grown adult males. Being the largest species of dolphin in the world, there's nothing quite like seeing one up close. Male dorsal fins get to be 6 feet when fully developed. We got quick looks at the T019’s iconic dorsal fins and finally made our way back to Friday Harbor!
More information about the Pacific Whale Watch Association: https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/