So, what happens when you go looking for some dolphin watching?

You see some dolphins!  Joan called Steph in the middle of our Dolphin-palooza; Steph said, "You see them almost every time you go out, don't you?"

Sometimes that is our whole reason for going out.  Other times, it might be to see the sunrise or sunset... maybe do a little sight-seeing... and then the dolphins pop up and make it even more fun.  At our jobs in the Pacific Northwest, our whale-sightings are about 90%... our average for seeing dolphins here is better than that.  ;-)

The weather weasels were calling today: "Thick fog in the morning, cloudy the rest of the day."  They had the first part right.  As for the second part - here's what it looked like when we headed out after noon...

It wasn't long before we got our first view of some dolphins...

Must have been some good fishing: the dolphins and the pelicans were vying for the best spots...

This pelican aborted his landing when a dolphin surfaced in that spot...

On with the dolphin show...

"How many photos did you shoot?" you ask.  Thanks for asking.  There was a lot going on.  Joan shot for a bit while I drove, then we swapped places.  I shot somewhere on the far side of 80 images, after tossing out the "missed that one" shots.

Coming right for us...

Some dolphin faces...

Other side of the boat.

You know those model shots where the girl whips her hair in the water?  Yeah, dolphins started that...

These mammals are smart and fast.  Not as fast as some of the fishing boats or wind-surfers, though...

Yes, those are scars on his back.

We had some great viewing - lots of fun activity.  Time to part company, though.  Bye-bye!

Joan needed a break after all that excitement - there is a reason they call these couch-looking things on the boat "lounges"...

From there, it was down and around: south to the ship channel, then west around our island.  We were planning some Italian for a late lunch, so I put the coals to it.  Well, I pushed the throttle a bit over half way to get us around 12 knots.

To bring this to a conclusion, we were rolling up to the restaurant just after 3:00.  Lunch was great.  So was the dolphin watching prior to that.

:-)

The weather is supposed to be windy and a good chance of rain tomorrow.  Nice to be able to go out on the boat when we want, for as long (or short) a time as we want.  I am enjoying this boat!

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A short video from today's interaction...