forty days: homecoming
Date: July 25, 2022
Time Start: 10:30 a.m.
Time Finish: 1:15 p.m.
Cruise From: Eagle Island Marine State Park
Cruise To: Swantown Marina, Olympia
Engine Hours Start: 1452
Engine Hours Finish: 1455
Weather/sea conditions: Sunny and hot, 90+! Smooth cruise.
Sunrise at 5:30 a.m. heralds the start of a hot summer day, the final day of this cruise for us as we head home.
Time Start: 10:30 a.m.
Time Finish: 1:15 p.m.
Cruise From: Eagle Island Marine State Park
Cruise To: Swantown Marina, Olympia
Engine Hours Start: 1452
Engine Hours Finish: 1455
Weather/sea conditions: Sunny and hot, 90+! Smooth cruise.
Sunrise at 5:30 a.m. heralds the start of a hot summer day, the final day of this cruise for us as we head home.
The morning is all about the seals at Eagle Island. They swim out all around us as schools of small fish are plentiful for them to feed on. It's a bright, sunshiny day, and already getting hot as Dan prepares a final breakfast of his blueberry pancakes.
The seals are gathering together and forming a raft on the water near a home on nearby Anderson Island. It takes a lot of grunting and snorting and shifting around before they are in formation and turn into a relaxed mass of seal bodies floating on the water. By the time we leave, they are all settled down and seem to be sleeping.
One last look at wonderful Eagle Island, and we are on the final leg of our cruise.
We don't get far when we see them, Orcas! We shut off the engine and drift, seeing the fins, spouts, and arching of three whales heading north in Drayton Passage. We can hear the sounds of their blows. Wow! We are adrift in a collection of flotsam as we take in this special moment. Later we will learn than the whales have been all the way south to Olympia on their journey, and many people have been able to see them. No, we don't have any photos, just memories.
The familiar sights of our home waters are stunning today, our homecoming day. What a beautiful end to a fantastic cruise. What a lot of memories, and what a lot of photos to sort! We'll be able to relive this cruise over and over, yet are looking forward to the cruises that lie ahead, too.
