san juan island

Today Noelle paddled out on a 3 hour sea kayak tour, and along with the more common bald eagles and harbor seals, she and her guests were also thrilled to sea some killer whales! The slow, northbound moving group of whales were in the Harbor Strait between Henry Island and D'Arcy Island, CA. Granted, they were in the distance, but everyone could see dorsal fins and the spouts created by exhalation. It was a gorgeous, calm sunny day for a paddle, so what a great...

Captain Brian just reported back from today's whale watch trip this afternoon, and he described it as "one of his Top 3 wildlife encounters- ever!" The boat left Roche Harbor and headed out in search of the transient Orcas that were in the area. Upon arriving they saw harbor porpoises "everywhere" and Brian and Kendall were on the alert and watching the hunting transient whales. Suddenly both transients dived down and disappeared. Everyone was scanning the waters...

Whale watch boats spotted J pod on the west side this afternoon. There was lots of activity from the large group of spread out killer whales, and sunny skies to boot. Folks on land and sea were lucky today, as from Lime Kiln State Park the whales could be seen off in the distance!

What a great day!

Hege and I paddled out for a 5 hour tour this morning, and while we were hoping to see whales, we were content with a long, hard paddle and numerous bird sightings. The clouds from earlier lifted and we had bright sunny skies with us all day (my sunburned face will attest to that!). As Hege was a great novice paddler and happy to keep moving instead of examining the flora and fauna up close, we sailed around Henry Island and headed down to San Juan County Park...

Captain Nancy and Kevin headed out of Friday Harbor today with a full boat of local middle schoolers. They headed down to Alden Bank, while braving strong winds from the southwest. When they arrived they saw a lot of activity from the whales, including multiple breaches! It was a long trip but the 23 young kids enjoyed the effort.

Noelle paddled out with three guests this morning for a 3 hour sea kayak tour, and reported back that there were sunny skies and smooth, glassy waters to greet them out on the west side. Once there they had quite a few wildlife sightings-- from harbor seals to bald eagles-- but what was most exciting was the porpoises that were spotted foraging around just off the western shore of Henry Island. Noelle identified them as Dall's porpoises, making them the first Dall...

Today I paddled out for a 5-hour sea kayak tour with Sarah & Randy from Indiana. While we didn't see whales or porpoises, we were lucky enough to experience just about every type of weather the San Juans have to offer! We started under low, thick gray clouds, which parted to sunny bright blue skies, then turned into blustering wind and some serious rain.

I was thankful that Sarah & Randy had such great senses of humor, and kept up some positive attitudes about the...

I am glad so many folks decided to come kayaking today as it was absolutely gorgeous here on the west side. My first tour of the day was special, as it was just Dan and Joan with me, and we got to really relish the quiet perfection. They were native Washingtonians, so it was a treat for me to be able to show them a side of these islands (and their state) they'd never seen before.
My second tour was also pretty neat as the wildlife really came out for the four...

Today Carin, Nick and I paddled out of Roche Harbor for a 5 hour sea kayak tour. While we were indeed hoping to see some mega fauna like orcas or sea lions, we had to be content with the curious harbor seals, frequent bald eagle sighting and absolutely gorgeous weather. It looks as though the rain clouds from this week have been banished, and I hope those blue skies are here to stay!

My favorite part of the trip occurred as we were paddling down the west side of...