San Juan Island Adventures

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...

We had such an awesome day on the water. It was an incredible day with lots of first experiences for everyone who was paddling or on the whale watch. Noelle & Britt were on the desk all day and even they were super envious of the guides wildlife encounters!

Captain Nancy and Naturalist Kevin left Roche Harbor this morning on the Sea Hawk and motored down Mosquito Pass. When they got to the southern most point of Henry Island near Kellet Bluff, there were salmon jumping...

Daaang it’s been toasty warm! The high today was forecasted to be nearly 85. Let me tell ya, it feels like it down on the dock! Operations manager Noelle & reservations chica Britt, along with dock dude Joe & Jacob have been down here all day…I’m pretty sure they are melting in this heat :).

We had an exciting day on the water today. Captain Brian and Naturalist Kevin were on the Sea Hawk all day. They met up with the whale near the Lime Kiln Lighthouse late morning...

Captain Brian and Naturalist Kevin just got back to the dock from their morning whale watch and they reported seeing all the Ks and Ls traveling together. The Sea Hawk met up with the whales just outside Roche Harbor, near Battleship Island along the Westside of Henry Island (Battleship island is a wildlife refugee for harbor seals, shore birds, and bald eagles…cool stuff!). Brian shut down the engines of the Sea Hawk and floated with the whales for over 1.5 hours. Kevin...

Captain Brian and Naturalist Tiffany just got off the water from their trips today and they saw tons of killer whales! The highlight of the trip was when a big male killer whale started coming toward the Sea Hawk with his mouth open. His mouth was open so wide that Captain Brian could see his teeth and tongue! This whale surfaced right next to the boat and there was a HUGE salmon in his mouth! Brian thought it was either a Pink or Sockeye salmon. The whale gobbled it up...

We have had a lot of really cool killer whale encounters the last few days. Captain Brian and Naturalist Kevin had most of their encounters recently near the southern end of San Juan Island. The whales really seem to prefer the areas between Pile Point & False Bay lately! They saw most of J & K pod swimming together with a lot of exciting surface activity. At one point, they were completely surrounded by killer whales. Captain Brian shut down the engines and waited for...