San Juan Island Adventures

Today I paddled out on a 5 hour sea kayak tour with guests from all over the U.S.. We set off under graying skies, and encountered strong currents and big waves right off the bat. As we rounded Kellett Bluffs, we found ourselves paddling through rough water with the wind at our backs and waves breaking all around us. It was exciting to be paddling through such big water, and everyone had a wide smile on their face!

The skies cleared up and it ended up being a...

I paddled out on a 5 hour Orca Search sea kayak tour today, and enjoyed my day with some hearty guests who were able to gamely paddle through some rough breaking waves. We were crossing our fingers that the resident killer whales on the south side of San Juan Island would continue to head north towards us. The whales moved northbound all the way to the lighthouse (Lime Kiln State Park) but then, alas, they turned away and moved out of range.

Although we were...

Today I paddled out of Roche Harbor on a private sea kayak tour and we paddled over to Posey Island for a picnic. Posey Island-- at high tide one of our nation's smallest state parks-- is a lovely spot to take a break, rest, relax, watch the sunset and even stay the night.

As we returned to the harbor we were fortunate enough to glimpse a mink scampering along Pearl's shores, a river otter playing off the Tarte's dock and then a harbor seal sunning its head in the...

Yesterday Joe, Nick and I along with new guides Megan and Tim returned from a little overnight kayak trip of our own. We paddled out to Stuart Island for the night, and then returned to Friday Harbor the second day. The gorgeous blue skies and calm waters let us take advantage of the area and explore some new routes. We saw lots of eagles and sea birds, and even found a small pod of harbor porpoises foraging off the western point of Speiden Island.

Whale Watching Log. I have not yet blogged about the Transient Killer Whale Encounter we had a couple weeks ago, May 22nd I believe. We had a late afternoon tour, and we were fortunate that some Transient Killer Whales were in the area. A friend who operates tours from Victoria, stayed with them until we arrived in their vicinity around 5:00pm. We were then treated to one of my top 5 Killer Whale shows of all time.

First let me briefly tell the newbies about...

Today we were fortunate to have our first sighting of the L-12 subgroup of L-pod. For those who are not familiar, L-pod is one of our three resident killer whale families or pods. These large pods consistent of smaller subgroups.
We received an early report that these whales were not far from our Roche Harbor location early this morning. By the time we departed at 11:00am, they had travelled further south than the original report. We caught up with some of the...

This evening one of our new guides Tim paddled out on a 3 hour sunset sea kayak tour, and boy was it gorgeous out! The calm waters north of Henry Island allowed for an almost perfect reflection of the sun going down. It was briefly obscured by a low lying cloud bank just above Salt Spring Island, but then slipped down to reveal a huge, glowing red orb. It was a perfect night for a paddle!

Success! Nancy and I headed out from Roche Harbor and headed north in search of some members of K pod that had been spotted earlier that day. Whales in K pod are members of the Southern Resident Community, resident killer whales that spend their summers here in the Salish Sea as they hunt the salmon that pass through on their way to spawn upriver.

After a long boat ride (cruising with the current at 18 knts) we encountered the whales just a few miles south of Point...

Joe returned from his 3 hour tour in high spirits today. Not only did he have fantastic guests that were ready to encounter anything that came their way, but they had a great time looking at the animals out there. Although they worked against strong winds to fast moving currents, their upbeat attitudes ensured that everyone had a good time.

They were rewarded with up close wildlife encounters including sea birds, bald eagles and of course, our local harbor seals...

This morning I saw out a large group of Harlequin ducks feeding out on the calm water. While they're a common sight on our sea kayak tours, this was the first time I'd seen so many grouped together while swimming. I watched for a few minutes and saw the dozen birds all diving and surfacing in unison; using their large numbers to corral and cooperatively hunt their prey.