All to ourselves...

We share information with the other whale watch boats.  Today, I left out of Roche Harbor, with no reports.  I had to back out between a nearly $3M dollar Ocean Alexander and a large landing craft.  By large, I mean: I had very little room to back out between the two.  Of course, no one was looking as slid between them... well, one of the guides onboard was pretty impressed.  I told him, "Sometimes you get lucky."  ;-)

By the time I got into Haro Strait, I had a solid report... reachable, but the whales were moving away from us.  I pointed the boat south... and saw dozens of sailboats, flying spinakers, heading north.  I pointed out to a couple employees that they could determine wind direction and strength by those spinakers.

Yep, heading into the current and wind.  The waves built to 2 to 3 feet, but I knew it was flatter further south.  There were two other boats on a couple whales, but it was going to be a long slog to catch up to them.  Then... a spout!  And, another!  Two big males and 3 females, transients... near enough to get to them easy, and not another boat in sight.

I positioned us for good viewing and shut down the motor.  I really enjoy being able to hear the whales as well as see them.  We had more whales and they were more active than the group further south of us, so I let the other boats know the situation.  It was almost a half hour before we were joined by two other boats, and it was a bit of a treat to have the whales to ourselves during that time.

Since we didn't have to run as far south as I first anticipated, we spent plenty of time with the whales, then had a good push with the current as we returned north.  That put me ahead of schedule... a text from the boss let me know that we had some extra time, so after checking with the guests, we took "the scenic route" home, giving the people on the boat the opportunity to see other wildlife and a great view of several eagles.

The day started off cloudy, but continued to get nicer and nicer as the day wore on.  The whale viewing was great.  We had eagles posing, and eagles flying.  Abundant sunshine by the time we got back.  Lots of happy folks.  Me, included.

No photos - it was a busy day at the helm, so you'll have to take my word for it.