Employee appreciation...

It has been a busy season.  Yesterday was supposed to be a day off... for us and one of the other boat captains.  An evening charter came up and I was asked to take it... "Sure."  I know the company needs to maximize trips this time of year.  The other captain took an afternoon trip on that same boat.  We did a quick "hand off" between the trips.

There were no Orca reports on the afternoon trip, but they had a nice humpback viewing.  Before I went in, there was a report of Orcas coming in from the west... it will be all about the timing.

My charter was an extended family from southern California, here to celebrate Mom's 70th birthday... and they really wanted to see Orcas.  In the 45 minutes between our leaving the dock and getting to the whales, they moved about 10 miles - towards us!  What would have been a long trip turned into an easy 3 hour charter.  I figured we'd be going west of Discovery Island (off the southeast part of Vancouver Island, BC); instead we picked up the whales just off the west side of San Juan Island, just north of Pile Point.

Our first view...

Guests at our stern viewing area...

We were able to turn the engine off while the whales milled in the area; then, they turned off-shore, coming closer...

The light began to change color as the whales moved off-shore from us...

To the southwest, the water looked pink; to the northwest, light blue.  To the west, we were looking right into the sun as it neared the horizon.  With the motor off, we could hear the breaths while we were viewing - that may be my favorite part.

Then, Onyx appeared with something in his mouth...

At first I thought it was a seal.  On subsequent surfacings, we could see it was a harbor porpoise.  Unusual, because this is J-Pod... the salmon eaters.  He didn't appear to be eating the porpoise, but the porpoise was having a very bad evening.

We sat for about 45 minutes... whales around us, beautiful light, calm water in Haro Strait.  A very special evening.  There were some other boats on the scene, but they were spread out, as were the whales.

When it was time to leave, we were far enough north that it would be quicker to circumnavigate San Juan Island instead of going back the same way we came.  We went through Mosquito Pass, then made a pass by Spieden Island to let the guests see seals, eagles, and the most Mouflon Sheep I've seen this season, including a couple big males, with the impressive horns (I had put my camera away).

As we motored towards Friday Harbor, one of the guests asked if we could pass by where they are staying, saying they'd like to see it from the water... I pulled it up on my phone - it wasn't much out of the way, so we made a pass by there.  The sun was just going behind the island...

That is how it looked.  With the camera set for "Romantic Sunset"...

We made it back to Friday Harbor just as one of the ferries was about to pull away from the close position (to our slip) and rotate to the next position over.  I gave them a call on the VHF and the captain said he'd do an "easy departure" so their prop wash wouldn't whack us.  Nice.

Joan had an office staff meeting, followed by Employee Appreciation Night - the boss was buying drinks and meals for staff at Herb's Tavern, from 7:00 to 9:00... our boat crew got there at 8:50... another boat crew was a few minutes behind us.  The crew from our Roche boat had an evening charter - other staff brought them food when we all left the tavern to go to our office for some prize drawings.

The premise is fun: other employees write your name and something nice that you've done on a ticket and put it in a fishbowl.  The drawing is random.  Our company has grown since we first started, so there are a lot of tickets in the bowl.  Not everyone is going to get a prize, but your odds increase if you've done a lot of nice things during the season.  It is fun to hear what others have written.  Joan won one of the top prizes: a night at a suite at Roche Harbor ($400 value)... odds are pretty good we won't use it, because it would mean leaving Izzy alone.  Joan won the same thing last year and gave it to one of the girls who really needed a break.  I won tickets for two to the local movie theater... hope we get the chance to use that.

When the prizes were gone, we continued pulling and reading tickets - it really builds comraderie to hear what other people have written.  My favorite of the evening: "For Joan - the Godmother of the front counter!"  A late evening, but good fun.