After a few 3-hour sea kayak tours today, Noelle reported back having seen a group of orcas out in the Haro Strait. Although the whales were far off, it was still a treat to see them again after a day's absence. Her other highlight included seeing an adult female river otter with her young. To see a family with kits is always exciting as they are often elusive.
Today I paddled out on a 3 hour sea kayak tour departing from Roche Harbor, San Juan Island. Despite the dreary weather, we all managed to have a great time! There were harbor seals and harbor seal pups to see, bald eagles to look for, tasty bull kelp to eat, crabs to find, jellies to scoop up and more!
At San Juan Outfitters we paddle rain or shine, so it's important that everyone bring the gear necessary to ensure comfort and safety regardless of the weather....
Joe returned to Roche Harbor after a 5 hour orca search tour with his guests. As his paddlers were in great shape they paddled south down San Juan Island before heading west to loop up and around Henry Island. Their 12+ mile paddle brought them into the Haro Strait where they could see our resident killer whales heading south. Although the orcas were in the distance, Joe and his guests were excited to see them.
For San Juan Outfitters today makes the 5th straight...
Yesterday Deborah set off on a 5 hour "Orca Search By Kayak" sea kayak tour and boy did they find whales! Deborah reported that the southern resident killer whales were spread out across the Haro Strait, and her group was in the perfect position to see a lot of activity from the whales as they swam past. While normally the protocol (for kayaking when whales are present) is to paddle offshore, yesterday the currents were so strong that it would have been...
Captain Nancy and Noelle reported back seeing L pod, of the southern resident killer whales down at False Bay this morning, thus continuing a long streak of whale sightings. This past week we've been fortunate enough to have the orcas at our back door, i.e., on the west side of the island. J, K & L pods have all been passing by through the Haro Strait almost every day now, and often in a "Superpod", which is the term for when all three pods are joined up and...
This evening I paddled out of Roche Harbor for a sunset tour, and boy was it spectacular. I think sunset tours are my favorite because we saw all the local critters-- bald eagles and eaglets, harbor seals, harbor porpoises-- but also had the waters to ourselves as most recreational boaters had already turned in.
This trip we were especially lucky to have seen a few harbor porpoises out feeding and also a mother harbor seal giving her young pup a ride on her back...
This morning I paddled out with two couples for a 3 hour sea kayak tour from Roche Harbor. While we paddled down the west side of Henry Island we saw a large number of whale watch boats out in the Haro Strait. As we drew closer we could make out small black dorsal fins surfacing out there, and could even see some of the larger splashes from these southern resident killer whales tail slapping and breaching. As my guests didn't have to rush back to the docks, we...
Samantha, Noelle, Nick, Joe, Megan and I just returned from a two-day intense training session with Body Boat Blade, a sea kayaking instruction business on Orcas Island. BBB is one of the best kayaking schools in the world, so it was a fantastic opportunity to learn from the leaders in this field. It was a great chance for us guides to get one-on-one instruction from experts and bring our skills to the next level. We practiced essential paddling moves from high...
San Juan Island sea kayak photograph update:
Many thanks go out to Robin and Steve who sent me all sorts of photos from our trip back in early May! Check out the original post describing all the wildlife we saw at http://www.sanjuanislandoutfitters.com/blog/2009/05/two-day-sea-kayak-tour-full-of-wildlife.html
Yesterday Captain Brian and naturalist Kevin traveled quite a ways to see killer whales. The past few days we've had the whales in our backyards, but for this trip the boat had to catch up with them on their northbound journey. Although it was a long ride, everyone on the boat was pleased to have had the chance to see these magnificent creatures in the wild.