roche harbor

On this fine Thursday afternoon, Captain Pete and I departed from Roche Harbor for our second trip of the day. We headed directly for the west side, and assumed we would meet up with the same residents that we had been hanging out with this morning, and were expecting pretty much the same trip we had this morning (fairly active residents, up and down the west side). But my oh my, this second trip was even better than the first.

We came across one matriline after another...

Today Captain Gabe and I had quite the adventure on the Seahawk.

We left the dock at Roche Harbor pretty early to pick up a great family in Friday Harbor. We enjoyed the quiet, early morning cruise from Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor through the San Juan Channel, scanning for wildlife that we might come back up and share with our guests later. No dice, however; nothing but seagulls making themselves evident this time of the morning. We decided to switch to plan B, to...

Today Captain Gabe and I left Roche Harbor on the ol' Hawk joined by a fantastic family and ready for adventure! After a leisurely cruise theough Speiden Channel to the East side of San Juan Island to handle some touching family matters, we decided to venture North in search of the most majestic monochrome mammals around, Orcas! We had heard reports of the Southern Residents making their way around Turn Point, the most Northwesterly point in the San Juan Islands.

We...

This afternoon's trip on the Seahawk began like many others. It was a warm day on the dock, our passengers were excited, and Captain Jim and I had no reports of killer whales. We left the dock anyway, and headed North out of Roche Harbor towards Stuart Island.

While answering questions about everything from whales to jellyfish to sharks and octopus, Jim and I were also scanning for Whales. Before long, we spotted dorsal fins heading towards Turn Point, the furthest...

Today Captain Gabe and I took out the ol' Seahawk on yet another adventure in the San Juan Islands to help connect excited passengers to the incredible ecosystem of the Salish Sea!

We left the dock in Roshe Harbor with the sun in the sky (after a rainy spell) and a collective mind to find some Orcas. We had no reports as of leaving the harbor, but that soon changed.

We headed South through Mosquito Pass, very narrow and scenic channel leading from Roche Harbor to the Haro...

A Long day and perhaps a shorter than normal post.

Capt. Gabe and I took two tours out with us today and we were blessed with the fast that s small portion of the Southern Residents were already moving south from Point Roberts, and moving fast! The heat wave we had a few days ago had broken so we had cool breezes and a very sunny San Juan morning. The orcas were apparently on a tight cetacean schedule because they beat us to East Point off of Saturna Island. It was the K...

Today Captain Gabe and I took out the Seahawk with a fantastic group onboard to go check out some of the unique wildlife in the Salish Sea. While we had a beautiful day in the harbor with the sun shining and the whale reports were good, it was just a bit windy out in the Haro Strait.

Our prevailing winds in this area usually come out of the SouthWest. For the San Juan Islands, this means a calm day on the water because the Olympic Mointains shield us from the worst of the...

Each Orca has a grayish-white area directly behind their dorsal fin that we call the saddlepatch. On each orca this patch is a little bit different and when we look at both the saddlepatch and the dorsal fin we can begin to pick out individuals in the pod. Today we had a great opportunity to begin to pick out individuals from the 81 members of the Southern Resident Killer Whales. Capt. Gabe, our excited guests, and I left Roche Harbor this morning with a lot of sunlight...

Today Captain Jim and I crewed on the ol' Hawk with sun in the sky and wildlife on the brain. We had a boat full of excited passengers hoping to see (and photograph) killer whales. The only problem: We had no early reports. Always hoping for the best, we left the dock headed south through Mosquito Pass to the Haro Strait, the body of water that separates the West side of San Juan Island from the East side of Vancouver Island, BC (Canada).

As we got towards the open water...

Do you ever feel like a day can't get any better? That's how I felt after we left Roche Harbor aboard the Seahawk on Thursday. It was a cool, sunny summer day and we were headed north, to Canada! While we crossed the glittering water in the afternoon sun we got to see some super views on both sides of Spieden Island and headed straight for East Point on Saturna Island. We soon started seeing some blows and tell-tale dark dorsal fins in the distance. It was a group of J...