San Juan Island Adventures

Our 11AM Whale Watching tour saw whales this morning, traveling from Pile Point to Andrews Bay. We're lucky large fish numbers are keeping the whales close to San Juan Island. This is not always true. Early season trips often send us to Point Roberts, Deception Pass, Race Rocks, and everywhere in between. Having the whales close to our departure point takes the pressure off, and allows us to take our time observing the whale's behavior.
Lots of breaching...

Our 3PM Whale Watching Tour saw whales again today. We were fortunate that the group of whales we observed this morning didn't move too far away, and were joined by a group coming in from the Northwest. The Northwestern Group (J-Pod) had been feeding as far north as the Frazier river that morning. The two groups joined up and continued north together eventually, after much socializing (breaching, spyhopping, lob-tailing and more). Lots of socializing usually...

Excellent 5-hour tour for Aileen today. Aileen's trip report came in a little later than Tim's, but she also saw Killer Whales on her sea kayak tour!! Similar area to Tim, except it sounds like she saw a different group of whales. The stretch of water between Kellett Bluff on Henry and McCracken Point on Henry is just spectacular this time of the year. We've been really lucky this summer with lots of salmon runs keeping the whales close to our main kayaking hub...

A quick post from our 5-hour kayak tour today. For the 3rd day in a row, our guide Tim saw killer whales on his kayak tour. Today Tim was paddling on the west side of Henry Island, and saw J-p0d swimming north just after our lunch break. Seeing whales swim along this shoreline is truly one of the most spectacular sites in nature. Undeveloped shorlines, views of the Olympics to the south, and beautiful water all around.
This season has been one of our best for...

Wow our guide Tim is having a killer whale sighting streak. This is his third day in a row seeing whales on his kayak tour. Today he was the guide for our 5-hour sea kayak around Henry Island. All of our guests came back pumped to see J-pod. Also they were fortunate enough to see a California Sea Lion which a rare sight to see. It seems that abundant salmon runs are keeping the whales close to the islands, which is great for both the whale watching and kayak tours...

Kayak guide Blake was proud to report that he and his guests saw LOTS of whales today during his 5 hour tour. They were paddling down the west side of Henry Island when they came across a small group of whales. They hung out in the kelp bed and watched those whales go by. Then they paddled to a beach for lunch. A perfect day!

Whales were spotted along the southern and western sides of the island today, and one of our guides Tim reported back that he'd seen 6 or 7 individual orca whales during his 3 hour kayak tour. It's always exciting to see the whales, whether from a kayak or from our whale watching boat, but it isn't always possible during our 3 hour tour, so we're especially pleased that he and his guests were able to see them as well!

Yesterday I returned from a multi-day sea kayak trip with a family of three from Oregon. We paddled out of Friday Harbor and headed north to Jones Island state park. We were looking forward to relaxing, exploring and looking for wildlife for a few days. We saw a ton of jellies (formerly known as jellyfish), including lion's mane and water jellies. We even saw a few glimpses of a California sea lion! It happened just as we departed our slips in Friday Harbor, and...

Greetings all!

Our guide, Joe, just returned from his 10am 3-hour sea kayak tour and had an amazing tour. While they were near Henry Island's McCracken Point they saw an Eagle swoop down, land in the water and fifteen seconds later pulled itself out with a fish in it's talons. It was an amazing sight. Shortly there after our guests, Jim and Marylynne paddled near a huge lion's mane jellyfish.

Today on the Whale Watch boat we got to observe 3 Transient Whales. They were spotted off Patos Island. The Transient Orca whales are always a treat to see because they are very stealthy travelers. They navigate the waters around the San Juans in search of their prey, which consists of orpoise, seals, and even other whales. The individuals spotted today were T-18, T-19A and T-19Bs. Yet another beautiful day on the water in the San Juans.

Weather: Partly Cloudy...