San Juan Islands Sea Kayaking from Anacortes

Sunday and Monday were drop dead gorgeous days to be sitting in a sea kayak and enjoying the San Juan Islands! Is anyone else out there taking advantage of these warm afternoons? We had a great trip on Sunday. Some really nice folks from Stanwood joined us for a kayak trip around Burrows Island. Our guide Mira led the trip, accompanied by Jeff and Rebecca Hoeben, two of the most recent additions to the Anacortes Kayak Tours family. You'll be seeing a lot of these guys on the water this summer.

On Monday we took a special trip out to Strawberry Island. This little gem of an island is often one of our stops on our circumnavigations of Cypress Island. Camping on Strawberry Island is one of the most amazing experiences you could ask for out of a San Juan Islands sea kayaking experience.
To call it a campground here would be a stretch. There are just three lovely sites on the entire island. From any of them you can relax and listen to the sounds of the water, seals slapping the surface, the sharp exhalations of porpoise, an eagle calling to it's mate.
We sat on the rocks at the south end of the island and ate our lunch while looking out across Rosario Strait to Blakely, Decatur, and the rest of the San Juans. Porpoise foraged for squid, herring, and other small baitfish which were disoriented in the currents. Seagulls, not known as a perching bird, have made an old dead snag into a lookout. Dozens of them stood on the branches, eyeing our lunches with a hopeful gaze (no such luck, any slim chance of a handout evaporated as one of their cohorts unloaded some unmentionables onto my kayak).

At 12:26 the Sun was officially at it's halfway point to it's zenith. The "vernal equinox" had been reached, Spring was finally here. Up with Spring!

Kayaking back to Anacortes later that afternoon was wonderfully uneventful. We relaxed as we paddled. With the muted calls of Rhinocerous Auklets all around, we watched the Sun sink slowly towards the horizon.