Two in a row!

Two charters for me today.  The first one was early - be there at 8:00 to prep the boat, put on ice, ready to head out between 8:45 and 9:00.  I rarely know much about any specific charter until the people are ready to board the boat... could be a family, could be a business group.  This morning, it was a group of Japanese folks on a guided tour through parts of the United States.  I visited with the leader of the tour (he speaks English) to see what they want... "Take us to the whales.  We don't really need to see anything else.  If you can have us back in 2 1/2 hours, that would be great."

"Well, it pretty much depends on where the whales are - no reports this early in the day, so we'll be the scouting party.  It isn't like the whales are in one place, waiting for us to visit."

The rest of this is going to sound like a cliche'... yep, LOTS of cameras, plenty of telephoto lenses.  Their next destination is Alaska to photograph bears - they are serious about their photos.  While waiting in front of the office for several of them to use the restroom, two of them found our "animal hats" that we have for sale.  Oh, they're cute... in a kid-kinda way.  You can select from an Orca, a sea otter, and two different dolphins.  The guys were trying them on, laughing hysterically, then taking photos of each other.  That's where I thought it would end, but they each bought a hat!  A dolphin and a sea otter... OK, the sea otter kinda looks like a teddy bear.  One of the other guys saw their hats and went in and bought an Orca hat.  Well, all-righty, let's go to the boat.

I got them on the boat, and introduced myself... and got a round of enthusiastic applause!  I laughed and said, "Easy folks, I haven't done anything, yet."  One guy translated, enthusiastic laughter, and more applause.  This is going to be an easy crowd. ;-)

The first mate/naturalist, Amy, came on board, and I said, "You know her, you love her, let's hear it for AMY!!"  She was embarrassed by the roaring round of applause.  I did the safety talk, waited for translation, then said, "Everybody ready to go?"  Yep, more applause.  As I pulled out of the slip, I gave the horn a blast... more applause!  I was cracking up.

With no whale reports, I headed north, hoping to hear something before I had to make a decision to continue north or turn west.  I called the office and Joan had an unconfirmed report, so I decided to head for a spot north of there and hope for an intercept.

Amy came up to the helm and said, "Most of them don't speak English.  When I say something, the leader just says it again... in English.  What should I do?"

"You're a tall, pretty redhead.  Smile, point, and nod - they'll get it.  If anyone asks a specific question, answer it slowly.  And smile.  And nod."  ;-)

Sometimes things work out.  We were the first boat on the whales and had them to ourselves for about 30 minutes.  I let SoundWatch know what we were seeing, and within the next 20 minutes, there were at least a dozen boats moving in on our location.  (Yes, we do tell each other where and what direction... we got to be the "star" this morning.)  Cameras were burning through shots!  They were cheering every time we had a good view... and there were a LOT of good views.  A breach, and the crowd went wild!!  They saw "the baby"!!  Oooohs and aaaahs are the same in Japanese as they are in English!

I came down from the helm and confirmed that the leader wanted us to get back early and not look for any other wildlife... yep.

I had to go slow, working my way back east, and staying clear of the quickly moving Orcas.  I got them back to the dock within 5 minutes of the "hoped for" time.  More applause, and the leader was delighted.  Of course, Amy and I had to be in some photos.  Enthusiastic hand-shakes and good-byes.

We prepped the boat again, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and waited for our next charter.  It turned out to be an extended family - very jovial.  We joked a bit while they boarded.  Same request: get us to the whales.  They were OK if we saw other stuff, too.  One young boy (7), that I joked with during the safety talk... he was loving the attention.  His folks were the ones in charge of this outing.  The Dad said, "I knew you guys were the right ones when I booked this on the phone."

I said, "You talked to Joan, didn't you?"

"Yeah, she was great!  She had us all excited about this.  Very helpful."

"Well, put in a good word for me... I've been trying to 'get friendly' with her," I told them.

"Is that your wife?"

"Only for the last 40 years."

They were having fun the whole time.  I could hear them joking with each other, commenting on "how cool this is," when we were on the whales - they were enjoying the whole experience.  It was another fun whale viewing.  On the way back, I took them where they saw bald eagles and seals.  I think the little boy was as excited with the seals swimming nearby as he was the whales!

They appreciated all we did.

Great whale viewing, nice weather, decent water conditions, and fun folks onboard - it was a long day, but a very good day.