San Juan Island Adventures

Our 5-hour paddle today was full of iconic Pacific Northwest wildlife sightings!  We counted several Bald Eagles, some soaring and some perched in tree tops, others dive bombing for big fish. Harbor seals swam playfully around our boats as we paddled along the West side of Henry Island. With the wind at our backs and a flooding current carrying us forth, we felt quite rewarded during the second half of our paddle after working hard against some southwest wind coming...

Another beautiful day here in the San Juans! Today was a comfortable 70 degrees with blue skies.   We got up close and personal with some harbor seals and had some great looks at some bald eagles.  There were four eagles total and it seemed like two of them followed us for a majority of our paddle.  They were chattering to each other a lot today! Did you know that the long screech you hear eagles do in the movies is not actually a sound an eagle makes at all? It's...

Today we left Roche Harbor with whale reports down by Lime Kin Lighthouse.  We headed out of Mosquito pass and saw some harbor seals with their pups.  It is currently pupping season so we are seeing the baby seals pretty frequently.  We came out of Mosquito Pass and found the whales a little North of Lime Kiln Lighthouse heading south.  We went south with the whales and got a great look at J27 (Blackberry) and his sister J31 (Tsuchi) a little offshore.  We left the two...

It was a long journey for M/V Sea Hawk- reports had our resident killer whales all the way at the very southern most point of Victoria. Most captains might be concerned that was too far a trek, but not Captain Chris, he was ready to traverse the channels to get to those whales! All was calm within the Haro Strait for M/V Sea Hawk's passengers and crew, and it looked like it was going to be a rather peaceful jaunt. It wasn't until we reach the Strait of Juan De Fuca that...

The sun breaking through on a mostly overcast sky gave us the perfect temperature to kayak a great distance. We moved south through Mosquito pass, pausing for a moment through Garrison Bay and English camp, and eventually reached our lunch destination at Open Bay. It was a great paddle and although worn out a bit, everyone was in high spirits.

Kayak Guide Josh, 5-hr kayak tour, San Juan Island Outfitters Whale Watching & Kayak Tours

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...