Meet Captain Jayleen:

Jayleen is 29 years old and has worked in the whale watching industry for the last 18 years. Learning this trade at such a young age inspired her to start a whale watching company that could not only be personalized and fun but also show the intimate side of Alaska not many people get to see while visiting Juneau.

Jayleen grew up on a remote island where her home was an eight mile boat ride away from Auke Bay Harbor in Juneau, Alaska. Because of the remote nature of where her family lived she was homeschooled from 5th grade all of the way through high school. This allowed her to be crew on her dad’s whale watching boats during the summer, starting when she was 12. At that young age she decided being on a boat was one of the best experiences there was. By the age of 18, Jayleen had passed her USCG 50 ton license and started captaining a whale watching boat that summer at age 19.

Jayleen attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks, majoring in communications and minoring in business. After graduating from UAF in August of 2015 she realized she needed to figure out what to do with her life. After giving it a month or two of thought (and realizing there was nothing else she really wanted to do) she decided to start Jayleen’s Alaska.

While at UAF, Jayleen met her husband and love of her life, Chris Bydlon. Chris graduated with a Petroleum Engineering degree in 2015. Chris and Jayleen tied the knot on September 4th, 2016 on a 140 passenger boat in Juneau, Alaska in front of the Mendenhall Glacier. 🙂