Today we left Roche Harbor headed North toward positive whale reports.  We headed to Boundary Pass by way of John's Pass.  In John's Pass we saw quite a few seal pups in the calm shallow waters.  We entered into Boundary Pass and found the L pod resident whales traveling South West towards Turn Point.  The whales were traveling at high speeds and were seen porpoising to gain speed in the water.  At one point the whales were traveling at speeds of about 12 mph.  We...

Our five hour trip took a dive into Wescott and Garrison Bay, where we ventured between darkly shaded alcoves and underneath barnacle ridden docks. Mother and baby seals played around us and cormorants perched to watch us, their wings drying in the strong winds blowing off the Haro Strait. We ate lunch under a pear tree at English Camp, then walked off our meals examining the Madrona and Iron Wood that surround Garrison Bay.  The sun showed itself on our return to Roche...

We spent three days paddling with a great group of eleven people and what an exciting three days it was! Our trip began in Friday Harbor where we shoved off in pursuit of Jones Island. The paddle provided us with some stunning views of Mt. Baker, a delicious lunch at Point Caution and much sunshine. There were bald eagles, harbor seals and jellyfish about for our viewing pleasure. After setting up camp we played an intense game of ultimate frisbee, packed our hungry...

Our 3 hour paddle today was filled with heartwarming harbor seal encounters and exciting kelp discoveries. The adult female seals curiously nosed around our boats with their adorable, tiny pups, and we made a bull kelp horn out of an already detached piece of kelp, so as not to negatively impact the seals' primary feeding habitat. After modeling how to blow the horn, each guest took a turn and picked it up immediately! Usually it takes people a few tries, but these guests...

Today's 5-hour kayak trip started out shaky, we were facing some pretty strong winds that ultimately made us alter our course of where we were going to paddle.  I'm sure glad we did change our direction though because we ended up encountering four orcas around Kellet Bluff area.  The big male in the group was putting on quite the show for us as well.  We saw him fully breach three times as well as do a couple cartwheels, all of this occurring only about 100 yards in front...

This morning, M/V Sea Hawk motored north toward Stuart Island. Just in between Spieden Island and Stuart Island we encountered a group offshore. We first saw a few of them porpoising quickly through the strait, and soon after we saw the whole family porpoising quickly out of the water. By doing this activity the group sped up to 12 knots! This is a pretty fast pace for our Resident Orcas to be traveling at. After trying to keep up with this lead group, we heard of another...

It was a little foggy as we left Roche harbor this morning at 11am but as we made our way to Stuart Island to where the resident whales of L pod were last spotted, the fog cleared and it was a beautiful day. Before we made it out to the orcas we spotted about 10 pacific white sided dolphins!!!! They are rarely seen in this location and we were so excited to see them! They were moving fast and were creating a large splash of what behind them, something that is known as a...

Today we left Roche Harbor on what can only be described as a perfect day on the water.  We went down the West side of San Juan Island and found the whales at Andrews Bay.  We first came across L87 (Onyx).  Onyx usually travels with J2 (Granny) ever since his mom died in 2010.  We then went past Lime Kiln Lighthouse with Onyx and came across the J16's.  The family includes J16 (Slick) and her three offspring J26 (Mike), J36 (Alki) and J42 (Echo).  They were traveling...

Some days you spend all of you time searching for what you want, and other days it comes to you.  Today was the latter.  Leaving from County Park on the west side of San Juan Island, we paddled to Lime Kiln Park where the K-Pod orcas greeted us in a feeding frenzy.  After the show, we paddled north and stopped for lunch on a sunny beach, headed back on the water, and were once again passed by K-Pod who had turned north.  Both times they delighted us with their acrobatics...

Island hopping in the San Juans is always a great experience, but during a full moon the tides expose even more shoreline than normal. Our group rode the flooding tide up to Stewart Island, the most Nortwesterly major island in the San Juans, enjoying clear views of Mount Baker and the North Cascades slipping through John's Pass. Camping at Stewart Island State Park, we got in our boats the next day to see what the extra low tides would expose. What we found were a bevy...