A pastoral morning...

A foggy start to the day...

As we got ready for work, the fog lifted.  We had this pair right outside our dinette window, but the shooting was better when they moved further away...

When it was time for Joan to head to work, the fog had rolled back in...

After Joan left, the deer came back...

The little one is limping; seems to have a problem with the left rear leg.  Not much in the way of predators on this island, but there are plenty of cars.

Little Izzy watched with interest...

She said, "I think I could take that down."

Yes, she's on the leash... we'll never know.

----------------------

Over to Roche for my work day.  No reports before heading out.  The last known position on the residents put them north of Vancouver, on the north arm of the Frasier.  I took us north, hoping to find those whales on their way back south.  That didn't happen.  Half way into the trip, still no reports.  I took us into Boundary Pass, west across Haro Strait... following the food chain, looking for transient Orcas.

That didn't happen, either.  Along the way, we saw other wildlife, but I know people get on our boats to see whales.  I don't like getting skunked.  I got a report of a humpback too far south for us to get to and get back in any reasonable time... in the fog.  The boat that was with the whale was having trouble finding it.

When I made the final turn to take us back to Roche, I got the first Orca report: one of the Vancouver boats found them well north of Vancouver.  No way we could have gotten to them.  By the time I got the boat back to the dock, only one boat (Canadian) saw whales.  Odds were pretty good that trips going out later than ours weren't going to get that far north, either.

We had a couple C-Dory friends of ours (Patrick and Kim) and friends of theirs onboard.  I work hard on every trip, but it was especially disappointing with friends.  Our guests were understanding, even thanking us for the hard work on the trip.

Yeah, I know: can't win 'em all.  But, I can try.  The conditions were very nice today: sunny (we could see the thick fog to the south when we were in Haro Strait), very little wave action.  Cool, though.  First mate Erick handed out all the blankets we had onboard.  One of the guests who stayed on the bow most of the trip, carried back a stack of blankets at the end of the trip... all nicely folded.

Yep, very nice folks onboard today.