San Juan Island Adventures

Friday and Saturday the Sea Hawk went out with reports of our resident orcas. Friday Captain Brian and Naturalist Aimee motored out of Roche Harbor and headed south toward False Bay. False Bay is on the west side of San Juan Island. We caught up with a female and a calf swimming. Brian and Aimee identified the calf and J-49 who was born last summer. Newborns are usually six to eight feet and around 400lbs! After seeing those two, two more mother and calf pairs swam by...

Kayak guide Jesse and his guests were in for a treat when they left for their West Side Kayak Tour today. Within 5 minutes of the tour, kayak guide Jesse heard breathing at the surface from J pod! Jesse and his guests were able to see several breaches from the orcas as well as porpoising! Porpoising is when the whale is traveling quickly at the surface and comes almost completely out of the water. Orcas can travel at speeds of almost 30 mph in short bursts!

J pod came...

San Juan Outfitters had many amazing wildlife reports these last few weeks. Juvenile humpbacks, minke whales, transient mammal-hunting killer whales, and even pilot whales (!?) were all sighted in the waters surrounding the San Juan Islands.

Today, Jpod returned to the Haro Straight! Jpod was sighted early this morning along the Victoria, BC waterfront. Since then, Jpod traveled up the west side of San Juan Island and was heard vocalizing on the Lime Kiln Lighthouse...

Kayak guide Jesse and his guests had a great day on their 5 hour tour today enjoying a break from the rain. With a high near 65 today, and blue skies, it was gorgeous! Jesse and company enjoyed many creatures that live along the shoreline such as California mussels, goose neck barnacles, and schooling fish. At high tide, when the mussels and barnacles are submerged, you can see them filtering the water for food! There were also red and purples sea urchins and a...

We've had stunning weather these past few days and this entire next week is going to be more of the same! Plan on highs in the mid 70s for the next seven days.

Guide Michael witnessed a very unlikely sight today during his 5-Hour Kayak Tour! Michael and his guests started off the tour by paddling along the west side of Henry Island, which is one of the remote island in the San Juan Archipelago. They paddled past many pairs of mature bald eagles and several pairs of...

Guide Michael had a great morning sea kayak tour today. We are in the midst of a very warm spring weather pattern. Highs are forecasted to be in the low 70s through the rest of the week!

Michael and his guests departed from San Juan Outfitters' exclusive location in Roche Harbor, rounded Pearl Island, and paddled past little Posey Island. Posey Island is Washington State's smallest state park and is now also part of the new San Juan Islands National Monument!

The...

We are off to a great 2013 season! We've had lots of wonderful wildlife encounters on the water in the recent weeks. Guides Andrew and Jesse both got out on the water with Half-Day and Full-Day professionally guided Sea Kayak Tours.

As we are sure you've heard, the San Juan Island are now the home of the most recent National Monument! Out departure location at Roche Harbor gives us a great access point to Posey Island and Kellett Bluff, which are both now part of the San...

The past few days on the water have resulted in awesome wild life encounters. Last weekend, multi-day guides Nick & Andrew and 14 very hardy guests departed from our exclusive location in Roche Harbor for a 3 Day/2 Night Multi-Day Kayak Tour. The sun gods were not smiling on us, which translated into a soggy first two days on the water. However, Nick & Andrew reported that their guests were tough and well prepared for any kind of weather! The sun finally made an...

Captain Brian & Naturalist Aimee just returned from their afternoon whale watch tour aboard the Sea Hawk. Naturalist Aimee was SO excited about their Southern Resident Killer Whale encounters today that she could barely speak! It was all squeals! It’s one of the many reason we love having Aimee as part of our SJO staff. For her, every day on the Sea Hawk is new and exciting and Aimee shares her enthusiasm with all our guests!

The Sea Hawk departed Roche Harbor. Basically...

Where to start!? We had another amazing on the water! Sunny, low 70s, zero wind. I don’t think we could have any better weather!

Captain Brian and Naturalist Kevin had an incredible whale watch tour aboard the Sea Hawk. We had a small group today, so Kevin had a lot of one-on-one time with each guest. Captain Brian motored the Sea Hawk south out of Roche Harbor down Mosquito Pass into the open area of water commonly referred to as Open Bay. Almost immediately, Princess...