If you have to work on a scheduled day off...

It might as well be a day like today.

The boss was scheduled to drive this boat... but he is doing a "Staff BBQ and Employee Appreciation Party"... tonight.  He needed to be at his place to get the food going.  When he asked if I would drive today, I said, "Sure."

Turns out, it was a particularly nice day on the boat.  The first mate brought the guests to the boat a bit ahead of schedule.  All nice people - excited to be seeing whales.  And speaking of whales: the first report I got this morning put them a LONG ways away.  As in: the three hour trip would wind up being a five hour trip.  At least.  I came into work a bit early, and another report put a group of whales much closer, and heading the right direction.  The first group of whales had turned around and were moving further away.  The weather was beautiful.  For the first half of the trip, I was only wearing two light layers!  No vest, no jacket.  Nice!

On the way to the whales, we saw a couple eagles posing

Beneath the eagle, there were some Fallow Deer...

Some baby seal pups sunning on the rocks.  And, the whales had moved even closer!  The water was blissfully pleasant.  There were a half dozen boats on the other side of the whales, we had the closer side all to ourselves...

As always, I was being careful to maintain the proper distance.  We had the engine shut down, quietly watching the group moving south.  In 835 feet of water.  When a female swam right up to the boat.  Under the water on one side...

Then the other...

Then she came up for a breath...

Everything is OH-K... this is K-Pod we were viewing.  When it was safe to start up again, we moved a bit south to enjoy more viewing.

After an hour or so with the whales, we moved on... taking the scenic route back to Friday Harbor.  Along the way, we saw more interesting water fowl, including this juvenile bald eagle...

Right near the water's edge.

A fine day on the water!