When I got to work this morning, Joan and Karen had a look of disbelief on their faces - someone had just called and asked that. Yes, they were serious.
I said, "Well, this is Saturday, so 11:15 am and 3:45 pm."
Yes, I was kidding. Interesting what questions they have to field on a daily basis.
Typical when I work out of Friday Harbor that Joan goes in before I do. This morning, there were quail feeding right outside our dinette window...
I had to go in earlier than usual, though, for safety training. First mate Erick had a bad day on the boat: two people overboard; fires in the engine compartment, on deck, and electrical; sick and injured guests; the captain had a heart attack. He did great with all of that... and that's why we train: so we can handle tough situations if/when they come up.
We were scheduled for a full boat at our usual time. Our other boat had a charter and was supposed to go out a half hour after us. The Washington State Ferry was running behind... as in an hour or more. It played havoc on most of the Friday Harbor boats. Fortunately for us, most of our guests had flown in... we lost a few, but were able to put them on our Roche Harbor afternoon trip.
It was a foggy start to the day again, with rain predicted for the afternoon. Plenty gray as we headed south in San Juan Channel...
The guests still had a "sunny attitude"... maybe because we had a good whale report. I kinda like the look of the island silhouettes when the weather is like this...
It took us about 50 minutes to get to the whales (K-Pod) in Haro Strait. I set us up for some viewing, and the whales were cooperative. Not a lot of boats on the scene - there were transient Orcas further north in Haro and north of Waldron Island, so whale boat captains had options.
It was a busy time at the helm today; I didn't have a chance to get any photos. We did have a "close encounter" just as the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife boat came on the scene: I was moving slowly parallel to the whales at the proper distance, when the disappeared on a long dive. I had the engine off since the whales weren't moving very fast. Two of them changed direction while on that long dive and came up closer than 200 yards. When the whales moved far enough away, I started up again to reposition. Two more came up behind us... I moved to port, they moved to port... I moved to starboard, they moved to starboard. It felt like they were stalking us! With the law enforcement boat close by.
We know the Orcas have unique personalities... apparently, a sense of humor, too.
Again, we moved to reposition. The whales were moving down-island, heading in our direction for home. Nice, because it means we can spend more time with them. Right on schedule, it began to rain. This boat has nice overhead canvas, keeping people pretty much out of the rain when they are outside the cabin area. Everyone was enjoying the viewing.
I let the guests know that "these will be our last looks," and we headed for Cattle Pass. In the rain...
A nice group of Stellar Sea Lions on the rocks in that area, then time to head for Friday Harbor. Before I left for the trip, Joan let me know that most of the guests on our boat were flying out at 5:30 on seaplanes... "Have them back by 5:00." I told her I'd have them back at 4:47. We pulled up to our dock at 4:44. Yeah, I'm prompt.
Joan let me know that this boat has an early trip tomorrow, so we fueled it up again, so tomorrow's crew doesn't have to deal with it. I have an early trip out of Roche, and they said they'd fuel it after their last trip so I don't have to deal with it early... we do try to watch out for each other.
Joan asked if I'd do some "crowd control" with the guests who were heading out on the evening trip with the other boat... I visited with them while the other crew was cleaning their boat for a quick turn-around.
Scooted on home afterwards, with only a light sprinkle. By the time Joan got home a half hour later, it was dry. Izzy got some leash time.
It was a busy day. A lot of "shuffling" to make things work. Joan does a lot of "behind the scenes" work to make things flow.
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