I had a late charter. Usually our last trip goes out at 5:30, back to the dock around 8:30... ish. Joan scheduled me a charter with a 6:00 departure. These folks wanted to see whales: they are here from Texas for a soccer tournament in Seattle; they drove up to Anacortes and took the ferry over to get on our boat. The Plan: get on the boat after the ferry arrives at 5:55, get the folks to the whales, have them back to the dock at 9:00 so they have a little time to look around Friday Harbor, in time to get on the 10:00 pm ferry heading back; and then make that drive from Anacortest back to Seattle; where they will arrive very late, then get up early to catch their flight back to Dallas. Whew!
Pretty ambitious plan.
Insert your favorite "best laid plans" quote here. The ferry was late. Vessel Watch was showing they would arrive 25 minutes late. Nothing for the first mate and I to do but cool our heels - the boat was prepped and ready to roll. The inner-island ferry arrived before the ferry from Anacortes... they were there for quite a while. Then I remembered, this would be the last day of operations for the ferry Evergreen State - she is now officially out of service. Forever.
The Anacortes ferry couldn't pull in until the inner-island ferry moved off that landing and over to the other landing (yes, Friday Harbor has two "slips" for the ferries, but only one can accommodate vehicle loading.
So, that "25 minutes" turned into 40. The first mate met the people before they got to our office and brought them down to the boat. It seemed like a long slow walk down the dock, because they were stopping to take photos of each other along the way.
Not their fault that the ferry was late, but I was anxious to get out. The boss doesn't want us doing night operations; understandable when you see all the logs and other debris in the waters here. Plus, it is kinda hard to see whales in the dark. ;-)
I did a brief safety orientation, told the first mate to finish up with any details as we were pulling out of the harbor, and we shoved off... 50 minutes behind schedule. With a gray sky. And the report that whales were moving away from us. I wanted these folks to get to see some whales... and if I could get them to the whales, it would mean this first mate and I would have a perfect month: we have seen whales on every trip. That would be a first for me. But, it has been a really good whale season, so far.
I put the power to it as soon as we could, and headed north. I was "working the currents" to get some extra speed; the timing was such that I could pick up an extra knot or two by going north, over the top of San Juan Island, then with the tide change, gain some speed going south. We were going to need every minute we could gain. I got a text from the boss, reminding me to be back before dark. I had checked all our running lights and deck lights before this trip... just in case.
A look at the sky, running on the north side of San Juan Island...
Our other boat that departed before 5:30 was with the whales. The only boat on scene, so we had some idea of where to go. That's the good news; the not so good news: they were going to have to head out before we could get there, AND the whales were picking up speed, heading away from us. I had a good idea of where to start looking. Then another call on the radio: one of the Canadian whale watch boats was just about there... and would be there long enough to help mark the spot for us. That's part of how our network works. He reported that the whales seemed to be spreading out and weren't very active.
20 minutes later, we arrived on scene. I saw several whales near shore and an impressive male slightly off-shore. I went for the male (taller, more impressive dorsal fin) and I heard the group on the boat cheer when they first saw it. Viewing this big guy for a bit, I turned towards the shore in time to see a female breach. Then another. Apparently, the whales decided to get more active!
All the while, I was looking at my watch, figuring how long it would take me to get back to our dock, and what routing would be the fastest. The viewing was very good, but this is the only shot I had time for...
Yes, there is a whale out there. That was with a wide angle setting. Hey, I had my hands full. When I figured we were at our absolute limit on time, I let the guests know this would be our last looks. We departed at 7 knots, the maximum speed when within a half mile of the whales. The whales had other plans: one came up in front of us. I shut down. The guests oooh'ed and ahhhhh'ed.
No way would we make it back before dark. On the bright side, it was a beautiful sky...
And my favorite shot of the evening...
Heading south in Haro Strait. You can see the wake - we were making some miles. I ran south, and came up through Cattle Pass. This is my 5th trip through Cattle Pass this week: one in thick fog, one in drizzly rain, one really lumpy, and one perfectly calm - tonight it was only a bit choppy. My big concern was being able to see logs in the water with the diminishing light.
The last rays of the day as we headed north in San Juan Channel
By my calculations, we would arrive back at our dock at just in time for their 10:00 ferry departure. On the way in, it was dark, but I could see they were loading cars on the well-lit ferry. I called the ferry helm to make sure they'd still be loading walk-on passengers after the cars - yep.
We put the boat in our slip, thanked the guests (they were very appreciative of our efforts) and let them know to "not dally on your way to the ferry" (very close to our docks). We needed our deck lights to be able to see to clean up the boat.
Happy guests, happy crew. We have the next three days off, so it doesn't matter how late I get back to our boat. My butt was dragging, my shoulders felt the strain of craning my neck to watch for stuff in the water as the light went away and the chill. It's OK, I can sleep in. And I have finished my first month with "no skunks" (saw whales every trip)... I think I'll stop keeping track now. ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment