Another dinghy...

No, I am not saying anything about stupid dinghy tricks.  Heading out of the harbor today, I saw this...

The dinghy tied alongside the big yacht is a C-Dory TomCat.  Pretty much the same cabin as the C-Dory 25 we had, on a catamaran hull.  We spent months at a time on our boat, comfortably cruising.  Yeah, in a boat that is the size of that yacht's dinghy.  ;-)

We had options today: there were Ts (transients) pretty close to the north, or residents on the southwest side of the island.  Either should be a good viewing, I opted to go north, thinking we could view the transients, then look for other wildlife around the Spieden Island area.  The down side might be: lots of boats in San Juan Channel on a Sunday afternoon... really, it wasn't bad...

Oh, there were a few private boats who crowded in and got too close, but they didn't stay long and there weren't as many of them as I expected.  By the time we got to Spieden Channel, there were only 4 commercial boats and one private boat with the whales.  The transients were moving fast, then slow; zigging and zagging.  It kept me on my toes tracking them.  Literally - I was standing to view 360º around us.  They surprised us a time or two by coming up close, diving, then popping up again in a completely different direction.

Near Spieden Island, we were close to the shoreline, with the whales about 200 yards away in the channel, the other commercial boats were on the other side of the animals.  They went on a deep dive and came up right in front of our boat, close to the shoreline (it is deep right up to the rocky shore).  I turned away from the shore and shut down the engine.  Nice viewing.  After the next dive, they came up behind us.  Going west.  Then south.  Then east.

I did manage to get a couple shots off while shut down...

Interesting color/reflection in the water, with the golden colored grass on the south side of Spieden reflecting that light back at the water.

We stayed with the whales for over an hour, then toured around Spieden Island, getting to see seals, bald eagles, cormorants, deer, Mouflon Sheep, and some beautiful scenery.

The day had started out a bit breezy - part of the reason I decided to go north (protected water).  From what I heard on the radio, the water to the south wasn't bad and those folks were getting a good show, too.  Nice to have options, and a beautiful day on the water.

This is our "Friday" - we both put in more hours than usual, and we're ready for some down time.  We met for supper out after work to toast another work week behind us.