Getting married...

No, Joan and I are already married.  I had a charter today: a bachelorette party of 8.  Nice young ladies.  The wedding is next weekend.  When the bride-to-be was a young girl, her parents adopted an Orca in her name.  The girls were here to have a good time; they had food and drinks onboard (they had purchased a Washington State liquor permit, allowing them to have their own liquor on a charter), so it was a party... but they really wanted to see whales.  Not just any old whales - Orcas.

When I went in to prep the boat, there were no reports.  A half hour before these folks were to board our boat, I still had no reports.  Then, that call on the fleet radio that we were all hoping to hear: transient whales had been sighted in Juan de Fuca, heading towards Smith Island.

Bingo!

This was an early charter; our timing was good.  We were the third boat on the scene, and the transients were "surface active."  We were able to spend a good hour with the whales, and it wasn't packed with boats.  It was foggy when we left Friday Harbor, but no so thick that it slowed us down much.  By the time we were south of Cattle Pass, the visibility was excellent... still a low ceiling, but you could see for miles under the overcast.

It was a nice viewing... no, I didn't have time to take photos... but, really, it happened.

The ladies were hoping to catch the mid-afternoon ferry back to the mainland... we had them back in time that they could hit up a happy hour or have a bite to eat before getting on the ferry.

On our way back into Friday Harbor, I heard reports that the residents were heading back in from the west... a good day for whale watching in the San Juans.

It took until late afternoon for the sky to go from gray to some bits of blue, but I have learned to not judge a day by the weather.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.  And, it will be "our Friday."  :-)