Sea Kayaking in the San Juan Islands

It was an early morning for all of us. It was the plan to leave at 5 a.m. Whew! We haven't been up at this hour for a long time. John and I got up at 4 a.m. to shower and get ready. Melissa had showered the night before and her plan was to pile in to the truck and get some more zzzz's until we were almost to Anacortes then she would pull herself together. We were told to allow three hours to get to Anacortes but we got there in two. This allowed us to get breakfast at a cute cafe called Calico Cupboard. We all enjoyed our breakfast. Melissa especially enjoyed the mocha coffee she had.

We got to the ferry station and were soon able to board the ferry. The ride from Anacortes to Friday Harbor (on San Juan island) took a little over an hour. Here is a picture of Melissa in front of the ferry as we were waiting for our kayak guides in Friday Harbor.

Friday Harbor is very quaint and the typical coastal village.

We were soon picked up and all of us loaded up in the van to head to our launch site. There were three groups of three that were put in triple kayaks. All the rest of us had double kayaks. Melissa had the incredible luck (really?) to be put with one of our guides. Boy, was she happy - it was just as she had hoped. After getting outfitted and given paddling and safety instructions, we carried the kayaks down to the shore and loaded up. Just as we were getting in the boats, one of the guides yelled that there was an Orca just across the bay from us. As we watched, we could see it spout. That was an added encouragement to hurry up to get loaded up and out there.

Once we paddled out, we were treated with seeing a group of two Orcas and then a group of three Orcas. It was then that I learned that it was virtually impossible to try to take pictures of the whales when you are going up and down while trying to keep an eye on the whales and anticipate where they might appear. A while later we saw a large group of about seven that included a large male and baby. While we were enjoying thesevisual sights, we were treated to three whale breeches and one spy hop (that is where the whale goes vertical with just its head above the water and spins around checking out the area). Our guides were excited as they had only seen one breech since the summer started and to see three was like hitting the lottery. Here is one of the few pictures I was able to get.

Here is a picture of Melissa with two of our guides - Jonathan and Frue.

We left from Small Pox Bay and headed to Deadman's Bay for lunch. It took us over two hours to get from the start to the lunch put in. There were two sections that had very strong current along with a strong headwind. All of us had to paddle hard to get through those rough spots. Jonathan said that the first section on a scale of 1 to 10 would normally be a 4 but today, it was a 7. By the time we made it to Deadman's Bay, I think we were all ready to get out of the boats and have lunch that was provided by our guides. Here is a view of Deadman's bay along with all of the group's kayaks.

The trip back went quick. We were back to our starting spot in an hour. Thank goodness we were going with the current and the wind was behind our backs. We were also able to see an American Bald Eagle sitting up in a tree just above an eagle's nest

When we got back to Friday Harbor, the original plan was to have dinner there and tour the town before the next ferry to Anacortes left. However, the ferry to Anacortes was getting ready to depart within a few minutes so the plan was changed to be on that ferry. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Anacortes. It was ok but pricey.

We got back home around 10 p.m. and fell in to bed. I said that nothing was planned for tomorrow so we could sleep as late as we wanted. It sounded good to the three of us.