Orcas Island Eclipse Charters is a great company to take a whale watching tour with. Captain Bill and naturalist Deb were very friendly, knowledgeable and capable. The boat leaves from a dock at the Orcas Island Ferry landing. The boat is spacious, very stable with comfortable, padded seats in the cabin. You are assigned a seat when you board, which is nice because you can leave your belongings there while you move about the boat. Coast Guard rules allow only 16 people at a time on the outside top deck but there is space in the bow and also along the rails. On the day I took the tour there were only 16 on board so there was plenty of space. I saw Deb handing out heavier coats to people who were cold and also binoculars. There are big windows in the cabin so if you feel like staying in there, you still get a great view. There is a restroom on board and you can buy little snacks for $1. Water was free. We stopped near an island on our way out to see some large sea lions taking a snooze. Capt. Bill had a report from another boat that had spotted humpback whales so he said we would take a detour and try to spot those. Unfortunately, we didn't see any, but did see Orcas when we got to the west side of San Juan Island. Deb was even able to tell us which whales from which resident pod we were seeing! We spent a lot of time there, just idling so everyone could watch the whales. It was really neat to see those huge dorsal fins coming up out of the water. Too soon it was time to head back to Orcas island. On the way back we cruised quite close to a "bird" island filled with different types of sea birds which Deb identified for us. Even if we hadn't seen any whales, being out on the water and seeing the beauty of the islands from a different perspective would have been well worth the cost of the trip. The whales were icing on the cake! I highly recommend this company.