Outer Island Excursions Anacortes - Whale Watching Tours & Fishing Charters — Local services in Anacortes

While typically a great experience, today was awful. We understood ahead of time that they can’t guarantee whales because they are unable to cross into Canadian waters. But it seems like the company should take down their highly marketed whales guaranteed that is posted everywhere. After showing us the typical spots for some seals, they decided to drive us around for another two hours to go “searching for them”. They absolutely knew ahead of time that we would not be seeing whales today, since the way they find them is by communicating with other vessels about where the pods are located. Not sure why they drove us around like this, maybe to just make sure that you get the three hour “tour” time in. I know that you always take a risk of not seeing anything but this was just not worth the time or money. The tour guides could have at least used the loud speaker to give some area knowledge about various islands or anything really. Instead it was just a boat ride inside a fully crammed cabin where you don’t even feel comfortable eating due to how many people are stuffed in there. I would recommend that one waits until they can guarantee whales again, once the borders open, because it truly is a magnificent experience. Otherwise for the money you might as well rent a boat for the day so you don’t have to sit with strangers in silence.

On a side note, I would inquire what limited capacity actually means during COVID operations. The interior of the boat was filled with roughly 25-35 people, making it feel “limited capacity” has a very loose definition. Every row was occupied. With the weather being unpredictable, a cold and drizzly day, most people stayed inside considering that there weren’t any whales to be seen either.

Also when I went in to give feedback I was told to just come again. I don’t think I would gamble paying this type of money again to go on another boat ride. As a normal family with a normal income that just isn’t feasible and I can do other things for a better experience.

The least they could do is offer some sort of discount for you to come back again maybe then I would have considered it, but I will look elsewhere if I want to “whale...

Went on the tour on July 10th 2021 from Anacortes on Blackfish II boat with 27 co-passengers at 3.30 PM.

This was my first whale watch and I was very excited to spot marine life and my dream is to watch a full breach of a humpback whale. Captain Drew and crew Dana were our guides on the tour who made the whole tour quite engaging. I felt Captain Drew talks like the actor Matthew McConaughey which makes it quite fun to hear him while he explains the geographical aspects of the islands afar and Dana being a Marine biologist was quite helpful in checking with all passengers and answering their questions. They coordinate with all the other OuterIslandX boats together to find whales, so it's okay to be on any of their boats.

The other boat (BlackFish IV) was slightly larger and was filled randomly with 49 passengers, our boat had 27 passengers in total. Captain Drew took us to the Canadian borders in Strait of Georgia because they heard on radio that's where the Orcas were during that day.

Unfortunately, it was not the best day to spot the whales up close since Orcas were pretty spread out and swimming fast north of Canadian borders and US boats are not allowed on Canadian waters due to COVID-19 restrictions. But we did manage to watch couple of Orcas swim away towards Canada from afar which was attractive enough to make me plan a 2nd whale watching trip soon. Captain Drew was pretty disappointed that we couldn't watch whale up close too but it's based on luck and not in crew's control.

One thing which OuterIslandX should improve is replace their woman call operator (forgot the name) attending their phone calls with more enthusiastic marine person who is ready to answer questions and welcoming to have customers actually book the tours instead of condescendingly deflecting the questions without providing any useful information about the whales sightings. - 1 star off for this.

1 star off for filling one of the boat over the 30 people capacity.

3 stars given for the crew's attempt in showing...

After our whale watching tour with a different company out of Seattle was cancelled at the last minute, we were fortunate to find Outer Island Excursions and book their half-day whale-watching tour out of Anacortes. We booked on Saturday morning for a Sunday morning departure and there were still spots. The boat was larger than that pictured in the photos (I think they base it on number of people signed up?) which was great since it had an upper observation deck, bathrooms, and snacks/drinks available for sale on board. The directions were clear, plenty of parking (small extra fee to park), and two bathrooms available on site for before/after your trip. The captain and naturalists on our cruise were super helpful and knowledgeable. We were nervous about booking the general whales option and not orcas-only, but were lucky to see a pod of orcas within the first 40 minutes! The crew allowed us to spend extra time observing them, from a safe distance, while sharing interesting facts and answering questions. You can rent binoculars, we brought our own, but definitely recommend if you don’t have your own pair. We also saw a humpback! The crew also kindly pointed out additional wildlife including seals, bald eagle in addition to other various birds, and porpoises. We went in mid-August on a semi-overcast day with temps in the 70s. Bring wind-breaking layers for sure. The boat we were on had a nice indoor section downstairs to warm up, but I’m not sure all their boats have the same. Definitely recommend! A really nice option without having to take a ferry. Pricing seems comparable to other local 3-4 hour whale...