San Juan Islands Sea Kayaking from Anacortes

The first big holiday weekend of the 2007 sea kayaking season is drawing to a close today. Although the weather wasn't very cooperative yesterday, it was blowing a gale down at Deception Pass, our Burrows Islands kayak trips were able to go out into the sheltered waters behind Allan Island, Young Island, and Burrows Island. At least today's Memorial Day celebration will be treated to sunny skies and warm temperatures.
The orca whales were over on our side of the San Juan Islands again yesterday, right in our backyard actually. J-Pod was sighted over on the northwest side of Cypress Island, right where our Outer Islands kayaking trips and Multi-day kayak expeditions often paddle. To add to the excitement, a group of about 8 Transient (mammal eating) Orca whales were just a couple of miles away at the time. Usually the Resident and Transient orcas stay well clear of each other so it was a bit of a surprise to see them in such proximity. The Transients wisely ducked into Peavine Pass over by Blakely Island and headed west into the inner San Juans, thus avoiding a potential confrontation with the more numerous J-Pod. The guests aboard the Island Adventures whale watching boat were treated to a great encounter that I'm sure few of them will ever forget.

Last week was a big week for training here at Anacortes Kayak Tours. Our weekend with the instructors from Body Boat Blade International was outstanding, as always. It's amazing how much their professional coaching elevates everyone's sea kayaking skills. The whole course took place in Deception Pass State Park. The Deception Pass Narrows are widely known as a fantastic training ground for advanced sea kayaking, and our guides took on the surging water like they were born to it. Of course we would never want our kayak trips to be put into that sort of situation, but it's nice to know that our kayak guides are trained to handle rough conditions.
The rest of the week was spent honing our skills and preparing for the Big Weekend.
I'm so impressed with this year's staff. Everyone seems to possess wonderful paddling skills and local knowledge of the area. To make things even better, the chemistry between everyone is wonderful. I think that we're all going to have a lot of fun this summer!

Now if I could just get them all to give me some pictures so that I can update our guides page on this website......