San Juan Island Adventures

Today Captain Gabe and I had quite the experience on the ol' Hawk.

We boarded an excited crowd in Roche Harbor, and we were eager ourselves to get out and see some of the incredible wildlife that the San Juan Islands have to offer. Earlier in the day, we watched as the Southern Resident Killer Whales headed North to feed on salmon in the Fraser River and were now out of our range. However, Captain Gabe had another trick up his sleeve: Transients.

Unlike their fish-eating...

At 3pm this afternoon, Captain Gabe and I left the Roche Harbor dock with a Sea Hawk full of excited passengers for our first trip of the day. The air was warm, the sun was high in the sky, and the southern resident killer whales were on the west side heading north. The journey there even more enjoyable than most thanks to the warm weather and non-existent winds. Not a single blanket was used today. When we saw our first spout, we were a little surprised, because there...

Yesterday, Capt. Gabe and I hit the watery trail with a good ol' group down to False Bay to see if we could spy us some of the Souther Resident Killer Whales - or Rezzys as we affectionately call them. When first caught sight of them I honestly have to say that I was a little surprised. Because I couldn't really really positively ID any of the few we spotted first. I thought and thought and thought and suddenly Ocean Sun (L-25) popped up near us. It was L pod! This was...

What an incredible afternoon with K Pod! The Seahawk left Roche Harbor with positive reports of our Southern Resident killer whales. On our way to the whales we headed north out of Roche Harbor towards Battleship Island. As we rounded the north side of Henry Island we got some awesome views of both the amazing diving cormorants (medium-sized black birds with long necks , who nest on the cliffs at Kellett Bluff) as well as some beautiful bald eagles in our area. Bald...

That's right, Captain Jim and I met up with K-pod at Hannah Heights after a one hour motor down from Roche Harbor with a boat full of the loveliest guests we've ever had (and yes I say that about every trip). The stars of the show (from the Sea Hawk, at least), were Tika (k33) and his mother, Sekiu (k22). It was wonderful to be able see the size difference between a male and female. Tika is 14 years old, and still sprouting that huge dorsal fin. At this point, it's...

Today Captain Pete and I took the Seahawk out on yet another memorable adventure with a group of excited passengers. We left Roche Harbor with reports of Orcas far, faaar away near Victoria, BC but decided to take a chance and head that direction anyway. We made our way South through the always inviting mosquito pass out into Haro Strait.

No sooner did we enter the deep channel than a passenger exclaimed "what was that??" I turned around to see the massive back of a...

Yesterday on the Seahawk, we had an amazing day. Capt. Gabe and I set out with a bunch of great guests on a very sunny and calm day on the water. There were reports of some of the Resident Killer Whales heading east along the north side of Henry Island which is really close to Roche Harbor! We managed to head them off at the pass! Right when we exited Mosquito Pass into Haro Strait. It was the J-16s! We moved out of their way and watched them swim south. It seemed like...

Today Captain Jim and I took off on the ol' Seahawk with a boatload of excited and curious passengers from Kentucky to Alaska, sun in the sky, and wildlife on the brain. As we left Roche Harbor headed North, it didn't take us long to find what we were looking for: ORCAS!!

We caught up with the Southern Resident Killer Whale community just past Battleship rock (a bird sanctuary that was mistaken for an American warship by British troops during the Pig War) and watched...

On this fine Thursday afternoon, Captain Pete and I departed from Roche Harbor for our second trip of the day. We headed directly for the west side, and assumed we would meet up with the same residents that we had been hanging out with this morning, and were expecting pretty much the same trip we had this morning (fairly active residents, up and down the west side). But my oh my, this second trip was even better than the first.

We came across one matriline after another...

Today Captain Gabe and I had quite the adventure on the Seahawk.

We left the dock at Roche Harbor pretty early to pick up a great family in Friday Harbor. We enjoyed the quiet, early morning cruise from Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor through the San Juan Channel, scanning for wildlife that we might come back up and share with our guests later. No dice, however; nothing but seagulls making themselves evident this time of the morning. We decided to switch to plan B, to...