Glorious Day!

We finally got some sunshine this year and have the boat back in the water. After months of rain, it was just too beautiful of a day not to do some boating. We called friends, Sharon and Al, to join us for a short cruise and then have dinner.

We only got as far as the south end of Hat Island and Bob yelled there were whales! We could see the whale tour boat just ahead and many small boats surrounding the area. We drifted for about 1-1/2 hours and watched whales the entire time. We even saw the well-known whale Patch that has been on the local news. Patch was first sighted in 1991 and is believed to be about 25 years old.

The whales seemed to be playing with us. They repeatedly surfaced and we could even hear them blow. The most exciting times were when they came straight up out of the water head first or raised their tails in the air.

It was a wonderful day and we were overwhelmed by the beauty and size of these Puget Sound whales. Thanks for joining us, Sharon and Al. Not bad for your first trip out!

Stargazer Goes For a Ride

We ran Stargazer to Edmonds today to have her hauled out for some fresh bottom paint and to get her ready for summer. It was quite scary watching our boat swing from two straps and be carried across the road. I was very glad when they had her sitting on solid ground. We should have her back by the end of the week and ready to go.

Everything looked great when we got her out and we even discovered why our depth sounder wasn't working right! The transducer was covered with mussels. No wonder there were no fish in the Sound!

Whales, whales....where?

Finally the weather got a little better and we got the heater fixed in the boat so decided to do some boating this past week. On Saturday, we took out Robyn, Gavin and Cohen and Alley & Mihai. We had a lot of fun in some pretty rough water when we started out. One wave came over the bow of the boat and hit Gavin in the face back at the stern!  We headed up north to Camano Island State Park but did not find any whales. The waters calmed down and were quite smooth on our way back in. Cohen had a great time and even helped Grandpa run the boat.

We went out the next day with friends, Holly and Jerry, trying again to find some whales. We went further north this time and finally saw the spout of one whale about 1/2 mile away. We were not able to get close enough for any pictures and did not see it again.

Today we tried again and took out my nephew, Jonathan and his girlfriend, Hallie. This would be the day we'd see whales!  It was a beautiful, sunny day to be out on the water so we had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, we did not see one whale anywhere. We've decided we need to tag along with the local whale watching tour boat and see if we can figure out how they have achieved 97% success when they go out.