Did you ever see a lassie go this way and that?

Well, that's the way it was today.  On the Roche Harbor boat today, the only whale report we had was a bit beyond our range... but, they were moving towards us.  By the time we had the boat prepped and guests loaded onboard, the report was better: they were moving towards us at a pretty good clip.

The bad news: it was directly into the wind and current.  And, the wind was building.  No ride reports, but I was expecting lumpy.  What I got: lumpy plus.  It started out at 1 to 2 foot chop, and continued to build.  At 3 to 4 feet, you notice.  At 3 to 4 feet closely spaced, you really notice.  At 5 foot waves, we start getting water over the bow.  I went down to check on the guests, and everyone was doing fine.  In fact, most of them were into it.  This boat has a reasonably comfortable ride in these conditions.

The whales slowed their progress towards us, I turned towards the island to get some protection from the waves.  "We're not going back, are we?" several of the guests asked.

"Nope, just getting us a better ride."

Then, two reports... the first: the whales were again heading away.  Crap.  The second: a different boat had whales an hour behind us.  Yes, where we had been slogging through the slop... but, going the other direction, we had wind and current in our favor.

Again, the guests were concerned that we were turning back.  "Nope, a new report, a better ride, and this is closer."  A cheer!

These whales were also moving towards us.  Right - I heard that earlier.  It turned out to be true, and the guests had a good view of much of J-Pod.  Then, coming up-island at us: L-Pod!  The show continues.  We had a good hour of viewing, with the sea state going from sloppy to near-calm... then had to wait for the whales to pass so we could get back into the pass to Roche Harbor.

It was still blowing at the dock, so I had the opportunity to experience making a landing with that... it looked good... beginner's luck.  ;-)

No photos, even though it was a good viewing day... I had my hands full.