roche harbor

Today the ol' Hawk had yet another whaley good adventure crewed by Captain Gabe and myself!
Love was in the air as we left the dock in Roche Harbor with an excited wedding party on board to head out and find some wildlife. Using celebratory luck to find marine mammals hasn't failed us yet, and today was no exception.

Minutes after leaving the harbor we had our first bit of excitement: a Humpback whale right in Spieden channel! We are seeing more and more of these thirty...

My blogs usually take place from the platform of our whale watching vessel, the M/V Seahawk. Today, however, history was made: My guests and I "got whaled" from kayaks!

Taking people kayaking compared to cruising on the whale watch boat is a completely different perspective. We are lower to the water, propelling ourselves along our path using nearly silent paddle strokes as opposed to the noisy diesel engine, typically in much smaller and intimate groups, and we are much...

Today Captain Pete and I were slightly less than enthusiastic about the heavy rain in and around Roche Harbor, but more than willing to brave the weather in search of awesome wildlife.

Luckily for us, our passengers also had adventurous attitudes and were not afraid of a little rain! We had heard about some whale activity waaaaaay down south at Salmon Bank, near the South end of San Juan Island, so we set off on our wet journey. Welcome to September!

As we made our way...

On Friday you could feel the the coolness of September creeping up on the end of August, and Capt. Jim and I were heading north to meet up with our wonderful Southern Resident Killer Whales, and little did we know that it would be one of the best whale watching trips...ever. The orcas seemed to be moving quicker than we expected since we saw them just past Battleship Island soon after we left Roche Harbor.

It was some members of J pod. We saw two of the big males in the...

Today Captain Pete and I loaded up the Seahawk with passengers from Texas, Seattle, Colorado, and even France, and left the Roche Harbor dock in search of wildlife. We had heard that there were whales wayyyyyy down south near Heind Bank at the confluence of the Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca so we went South through the ever twisty Mosquito Pass.

As we began to motor down the West coast of San Juan Island, Pete and I were discussing that the tide was on its...

Yesterday Capt. Gave and I did not have very far to go. The breeze was cool and the sun, hot. We headed north to search for our illustrious friends, the southern residents. You know the ones with funny accents, wave at everybody, and drink a lot of sweet tea, you know those folks. Not really these southern residents only eat fish. And we first spotted them right north of Battleship Island outside of Roche Harbor! Sooo close right!?! It was a family of L pod! Which is...

Today Captain Gabe and I had quite the experience on the ol' Hawk.

We boarded an excited crowd in Roche Harbor, and we were eager ourselves to get out and see some of the incredible wildlife that the San Juan Islands have to offer. Earlier in the day, we watched as the Southern Resident Killer Whales headed North to feed on salmon in the Fraser River and were now out of our range. However, Captain Gabe had another trick up his sleeve: Transients.

Unlike their fish-eating...

What an incredible afternoon with K Pod! The Seahawk left Roche Harbor with positive reports of our Southern Resident killer whales. On our way to the whales we headed north out of Roche Harbor towards Battleship Island. As we rounded the north side of Henry Island we got some awesome views of both the amazing diving cormorants (medium-sized black birds with long necks , who nest on the cliffs at Kellett Bluff) as well as some beautiful bald eagles in our area. Bald...

Today Captain Pete and I took the Seahawk out on yet another memorable adventure with a group of excited passengers. We left Roche Harbor with reports of Orcas far, faaar away near Victoria, BC but decided to take a chance and head that direction anyway. We made our way South through the always inviting mosquito pass out into Haro Strait.

No sooner did we enter the deep channel than a passenger exclaimed "what was that??" I turned around to see the massive back of a...

Today Captain Jim and I took off on the ol' Seahawk with a boatload of excited and curious passengers from Kentucky to Alaska, sun in the sky, and wildlife on the brain. As we left Roche Harbor headed North, it didn't take us long to find what we were looking for: ORCAS!!

We caught up with the Southern Resident Killer Whale community just past Battleship rock (a bird sanctuary that was mistaken for an American warship by British troops during the Pig War) and watched...