Charters R Us...

I started the day with a private charter.  Two young gentlemen bought out the boat for a morning trip.  Joan arranged everything for them, and they did it up right: flew in, had food ready for the trip, they got aboard... and I asked them, "What do you have in mind today?"

"What do you recommend?"

"If you want to see whales, we'll head off on a whale watch cruise.  If you want to sight-see, we'll go look at pretty scenery.  If you want to see other wildlife, we head out in search of whatever you like.  The boat is yours for the next three hours, and we just want you to have a good time."

"Let's go see whales," one of them said.

And, we were off.  It took me nearly an hour to get them to whales, and they were enjoying the one-on-one attention.  A captain and a naturalist, and two guests... it doesn't get much more personalized than that.

When they had seen enough whales, I gave them the "Circle Island Tour," swung through Cattle Pass, showed them some new baby seals, bald eagles, and pointed out some of the interesting and pretty features along the way... and, it was another sunny, glorious day.

They loved the trip and showed their appreciation to the crew and the pretty Blonde lady in the office who put together the trip for them.

Just enough time between trips to spruce up the boat, and we were off with 5 guests and another "personalized tour."  This time, we were able to get to the whales sooner (very cooperative of the whales), and we were treated to a very active viewing, including 4 full breaches!  By this time, there were a lot of other boats in the same area.  I stepped down from the helm and said, "Well, I'm going to let you folks decide what's next: we've seen a lot of fun whale activity - we can stay along with the whales for another half hour, then head back... or, head out now, and I'll show you some of my favorite places in the San Juans and we'll look for other wildlife.  It was a unanimous vote for "let's go see other neat stuff!"  The naturalist wasn't sure what I had in mind, but she did a great job all along the way.  While running through the Cactus Island, I saw a male and female pair of bald eagles on a branch along the water - "A striking pair of love birds at 11 o'clock!"  And then a fly-over, a stop between Stuart and Johns Islands, along with some story time.  A swing around Jones Island, telling them about the entire island being a State Park ("There is a lot more to the San Juans than Friday Harbor and whale watching - and you are getting to see all that and more!").

Another happy group of guests.  And a really fun day for me and the naturalist.  It is a treat to be able to mix it up and be able to show folks more than they expected.