The blog updates have been less frequent because we have been out on the water much less. But don’t worry! The whales are still here! The Southern Resident Community of orcas have been here almost everyday for the last 2 weeks. That is absolutely amazing considering it’s nearly October!

We just received word that a brand new, bright orange little calf has been spotted traveling with K-20! K-20, Spock (born 1986) was long thought to be a male because of her larger dorsal...

Jeeze, ya think it’s August with all the killer whale encounters we are getting!

I had a few moments to catch up with multiday guides Nick and Michael about their recent 4 Day trip (departed Sunday and returned Wednesday). This trip was a pretty neat experience for everyone. This particular group was part of an outdoor therapy program for young men & women. Nick and Michael were the guides, but the program had two of their own specially trained wilderness therapy...

Oh where to begin! First off, so sorry I’m late on the posts! It’s been busy enough to keep me from writing :).

We are in the midst of an Indian Summer. It’s more back & forth with this chilly and sunny weather. The last two days were beautiful, then a bit cloudy, and now it’s supposed to be in the 70s again this weekend.

Tuesday was a pretty fantastic day on the water! Here's why:

Captain Brian and Naturalist Kevin were on the Sea Hawk and had a remarkable whale watch...

Ahh yess…September. The coolest month on the island, besides October. So really, I guess you could say, fall is the best season on the island. It’s surprising how quickly things “slow down” on San Juan Island. There is really only about eight staff members left, which is down significantly from the 22 we had during the summer. The eight of us are really keeping busy though J. The wildlife is still here and amazing as always.

In the past week, we had a lot of really...

Well, we all survived this crazy late-summer heat wave. The air temperature was 83 on Sunday, and down on our kayak docks it felt like it was, oh I don’t know, 90s? We are in the perfect spot to get all the sun and no wind.

The great news in the all of our guests saw killer whales on Saturday! Kayak guide Don had a private all day kayak trip. They put their kayaks in at Cattle Point and paddled all the way up to the County Park, which is north of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse...

When Naturalist Tiffany got off the Sea Hawk from her morning charter, I asked how her trip when. One word…”AWESOME!” Captain Brain and Tiffany had a very diverse whale watch. At first, we didn’t get many solid reports of the Southern Resident killer whales, so Brian and Tiffany went in search of Transients. They found ‘em near Beaumont Shoals! Tiffany identified this small family group (three females, one male) as the T30s, which are considered to be near-shore...

Yeah yeah, cheesy title. What can I say, it's the end of summer..I'm running out of whitty titles :).

On to the whale encounters!

Captain Brian & Naturalist Tiffany had another “very awesome” whale watch, as Tiffany put it. The Sea Hawk met up with the Southern Resident killer whales near Beaumont Shoals, near the False Bay and South Beach area on San Juan Island. Tiffany said that they were traveling FAST!

They quickly determined the whales were Js and Ks, and...

We all can’t believe Labor Day Weekend has already come and gone. It really does feel like yesterday that everyone was moving to the island and getting trained for the busy summer season. Four employees have already left for the summer, and we are losing our favorite Tennessee Boys (Chase & Philip) at the end of this week. Although many of the guides are taking off, it still feels like summer. We are forecasted to have record-breaking heat the next week. It’s supposed to...

It’s been such a beautiful day! Blue skies, light breeze, and in the 70s. It’s going to be like this everyday through Labor Day Weekend. Can you believe it’s forecasted to be in the 80s mid week? Crazy!

Captain Brian and Naturalist Tiffany had a really cool whale watch earlier today. The resident pods & transients have proven to be out of the area and elusive again! BUT! As they were motoring out to Haro Strait, they got another amazing surprise. The Sea Hawk was out in...

Captain Brian and Naturalist Kevin had another first-experience with a wildlife encounter! The Sea Hawk was bombin’ down towards Hein Bank, which is in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was a little bit of a haul for our whale watch boat, but it was sooo worth it! The Sea Hawk arrived on the scene and Kevin figured out that the whales there were observing were most likely the T70s, which is a Transient group (mammal eaters, remember?). But get this, instead of eating mammals...