Fashion blogging, and she slipped me a phone number...

No, I have no plans to change what we do here.

We had an early charter this morning.  And by "early," I mean I was at the boat at 7:30 to start our prep.  The departure time for the charter was 10:00 am.  Out of Roche Harbor.  With one of our Friday Harbor boats.  Depending on what gets booked first, these things happen.

Captain Gabe had the boat all fueled up for us, after his last trip yesterday.  Nice, or it would have been an even earlier morning.  First mate/naturalist Rachel was there at 8:00.  Before she arrived, someone hollered, "Good morning, Jim!" from the main pier - my buddy Herb.  He came down to the boat and we visited for a bit while I continued my prep work.

Shortly after 8:00, this cute Blonde from our office brought me down a piece of paper... with a girl's name and phone number on it.  No, not a date, it's my contact info for the charter.

We untied and headed out.  I figure an hour or so deadhead to get to Roche.  A pretty morning...

Getting close to Roche, I handed fenders down to Rachel to get ready for docking.  We planned to make a reasonably quick stop at the fuel dock (across from our kiosk there)... nope.  When I called the Roche harbormaster, I was told it was "too busy at the fuel dock."  No room on the main breakwater pier, so we went around the south side of the marina and found a side tie on C-dock.  Walking over to the kiosk (our Roche "office"), we saw there was one small boat at the fuel dock.

Shortly after we arrived at the kiosk, our contact person (the one from the number Joan gave me) arrived.  I'm thinking: "Wow - they might actually be on time."  We found out this charter was for a group of fashion bloggers from New York City.  Oh, and that "on time" thing... yeah, the rest of the group was 15 minutes late.  Not a big deal, we have ample time between trips today.

While Rachel waited for the rest of the party, I went back to the boat to see if there were any whale reports.  Nope.  Well, it's early.  When the group got to the boat, we visited for a bit, did a safety talk, then discussed the timing... they were pretty set on being back in that "3 hour" time-frame they discussed when booking the charter.  OK, time's burning.

We launched from the dock, rotated by the expensive display boats and headed out.  Before I got out of the harbor, I got a vague report... in Juan de Fuca.  Not close, but doable with this boat.  I visited with the guests to let them know what I expected for timing and conditions: we'd probably be at least a half hour longer (getting out 20 minutes late didn't help), and there would be some "chop" along the way... but, I would do my best to get them to the whales.  The young lady who set this up said, "It is my dream to see these whales..."

"Let us make that dream a reality for you."  They all agreed that they would be OK if they were a bit late for their next activity (found out later, it was shucking oysters).

As predicted, conditions were decent when we first got into Haro Strait, then lumped up to 2+ foot, confused chop.  Not awful.  I went down to check on them - they were having fun with the ride.  By now, there were a couple boats with these whales, so I had some good numbers to aim for.

Welcome to Canada.  We were south-southeast of Vancouver Island.  When we got to the whales, it was even better than the report: lots of whales, not many boats.  The upside of getting out early.  Almost all of L-Pod was present...

There were squeals of delight coming from the guests (female and male)... none of them had ever seen an Orca before.  The whales were moving towards San Juan Island, so we would be closer to Roche when it was time to head back.  It's all coming together nicely.

The viewing was very nice; with the whales movement, we were able to spend plenty of time with them, and still be in good shape for getting these folks back in the time they wanted.  When I said, "These will be our last looks," there was an "Awwwwwww."

"I'm working with you here.  This beats the heck out of shucking oysters, doesn't it?"  Enthusiastic agreement.

The water had smoothed out on our way back.  I put the coals to it.  They were enjoying the pretty scenery along the way.  Coming back into Roche, I put the boat where our Roche boat docks (they were out on their first trip today).  Happy guests getting off the boat.  I think there may be some whales in some fashion blogs this week.  ;-)

Heading out of Roche, I looked back and could see this line of trees - looks like fall is in the air...

Our timing was good coming back into Friday Harbor, going into our slip about 10 minutes after the ferry departed... I use the Washington State Ferry app to check their "Vessel Watch"... I slowed down just a bit to time our arrival back at our dock.

There is another trip on this boat today, but Captain Gabe is looking for more hours and was happy to take it.  We had the boat back in plenty of time for re-prepping for the next trip.

Back at our Friday Harbor office, Joan told me, "We are not on the schedule after this week."

"Time off for good behavior!"  September 1st will be our official end date.

Rain coming for the weekend.  No fun driving in the rain, but this area could really use the moisture.  Hopefully, it will also get over the mountains, to the area where the fires are.