Is that a math problem?

The boat I was scheduled on had two trips today.  One of our other captains didn't any on his boat.  Sometimes it works out that way.  Joan said, "Maybe Gabe would like to have one of your trips?"

I offered, he accepted.  That way, we each get a trip.

I took the morning trip.  It was a cool ride over there... I went early enough to have a leisurely breakfast before prepping the boat.  I kinda like that - start the day with a happy belly.  I had a good whale report - start the day with a happy heart.

First mate/naturalist Brendan and I visited with guests on the boat while we waited for one party that was coming from Friday Harbor on a shuttle.  We got out about 10 minutes late, fairly typical for the Roche Harbor boat.

It was breezy in the harbor - I expected it to be lumpy in Haro Strait... I was pleasantly surprised when it didn't turn out that way.  The current predictions led me to believe we'd have an adverse current going to the whales... another pleasant surprise when that also wasn't the case.

Looking ahead, I could see a bunch of boats with the leaders, heading down-island.  No other whale watch boats were with the trailers... I'm thinking we'll hang out with this part of J-Pod, and not have to work around other boats.

The first view...

Yeah, this looks like a good place to be...

I like the shine on the water in that image above.

I could hear other commercial boats on the radio, complaining about private boats running right up on the whales.  Not much of that where we were.

You can see the boats in the background.  They are not supposed to be inshore from the whales, but at least they weren't driving right up on them.

A couple whales started moving off-shore...

I started up and moved further out.  He did a deep dive and disappeared for a couple minutes.  Then...

Looking into the water, you could see the whale below the surface.  We are about to have a very close encounter...

I was ready to head for home; we aren't going anywhere until these animals move further away.  It gave us the opportunity to get our last looks while the whales continued on.

The current wasn't helpful as we motored north.  I let Gabe know that we would be back a bit behind what I had anticipated; still in time for re-prepping the boat for the next trip.  Happy guests when we got back to our dock.  It was some fine whale viewing today.

I almost felt guilty, stepping off the boat.  There is always work to be done to put the boat to bed... fueling, pumping out the holding tank, cleaning.  None of that for me today.  Gabe was happy to get the hours.  That boat will be his tomorrow, so he can fuel and pump out this evening or tomorrow and know how the boat is being left.  Something to be said for that.

On the scoot ride home, I got behind a car that was doing 10 mph less than the speed limit.  If it had been a long day, I may have been anxious to get around them.  Hard to do since there aren't a lot of passing areas on these roads.  Today, it just didn't matter.  I was home by 3:30.  Easy.  And little Izzy got to do some afternoon walking.  Everybody's happy.  :-)