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islandadventureswhales · 5 years ago

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Anacortes and Port Angeles

Anacortes

We had an adventure of epic proportions today as we headed into the Salish sea. The storms from the day before had passed through the area and the precipitation chances were very low. We headed out down Guemes channel and took a nice cruise through the heart of the San Juan islands. Our first wildlife stop was at Flat top island and found a bunch of harbor seals hauled out of the water and warming up underneath the beautiful blue skies that had snuck into the area. We even saw a few youngsters that were most likely experiencing their first year in the islands. From there we headed up Plumper pass and through active channel following reports of animals in the Strait of Georgia. As we left Active pass we joined the T100’s as they were headed east passed a BC ferry boat. We had some great looks and were also called by some friends to the south who were traveling in our direction with more orca whales. Out of nowhere Captain Tyler spotted a humpback off our bow and it was headed our way. The humpback cruised right into the middle our the T100 orcas without hesitation which was absolutely insane!!! The orcas paid no mind to the humpback however and continued heading north east. After the first pod of orcas headed of the humpback, which is known as MMX0014 “Nike,” began to check us out. The whale began to do something we call mugging and would not leave the sides of our boat. He would pop up on one side of the boat and give some looks before making it over to the opposite side and doing the same thing. Back and forth we went as Nike played a well planned game of whale ping pong, circling the boat without a care in the world. It was so amazing to be that close to such a giant animal!!! We spent the rest of the day with Nike as he was very interested in us and just kept showing off!!! After time ran short we had to move on but we didn’t get far before finding two more humpbacks near east point. We stopped at Patos island for some looks at the light house before we went to Sucia island and found a big group of Steller sea lions on Clements reef. An adult bald eagle was perched in the trees of Ewing island and even took flight as we cruised by. We continued cruising in getting looks at a distant humpback near Orcas island before finishing our perfect whale watch adventure into the Salish sea!!! -Tyson

Port Angeles

What a day it looked to be with the Olympics socked in and reports of rain in the forecast. Fog was everywhere but right before we loaded up passengers the fog looked to be clearing. We started our journey under slowly clearing skies and glassy calm water. We checked out Ediz Hook and as we rounded the hook we saw a great blue heron and a large group of harbor seals on the beach. Our one lone California sea lion was snoozing on the red bouy and a Steller sea lion popped up too. What a great start to our day. We traveled out into the straits and it wasn't too long before another Steller sea lion popped up thrashing around his lunch that turned out to be a HUGE skate. The gulls were trying to snatch little morsels as he worked to break off pieces small enough for him to swallow. It wasn't long after that that Captain Carl got a call about some westbound orcas moving fast so we headed west in hopes they would slow down and we could catch them. We spotted a few harbor porpoise along the way . We had quite a long ride out west and then we found out the orcas were really moving to fast to catch them but there were a massive amount of humpbacks a few miles ahead so we headed towards Pillar point and found the humpbacks. They were feeding deep so they spent a fair amount of time on the surface reoxygenating in groups of 3' , and 4's . We ID' one humpback as BCZ0366 Caspian even from the distance because of the unusual skin coloration on him. He is a whale that has been seen in this are since at least 2009 that we know of. A call to the captain changed our plans once again as the Bigg's or marine mammal eating orcas had done an about face and were now heading right towards us. It was under blue skies that we met up with T18 Esperanza ,T19 Nootka, T19B Galiano and T19C Spouter. Nootka is the mom to T19B born in 1995 and T19C born in 2001. Since they were heading east we got to ride along side them for quite a way. We had some excitement as the two big boys popped up next to us in the tide line possibly spotting a seal. Along with all the whales we saw we had lots of bird sightings too including common murres, brant's cormorants and quite a few red necked phalaropes. We eventually had to leave this orca family as we would already be coming home a little late but it was a gorgeous day with no rain , blue skies and a double header. Our lazy sea lion greeted us at the mouth of the harbor still snoozing the day away as we came back into port. -Lee

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spajonas · 7 years ago

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A Look Back At 2017

Hoo boy. Looking back at this year, I’m surprised I survived. The dumpster fire that is our country tried really hard to suck me in and distract me. There were many days when I spent hours on Facebook, scrolling and hoping for good news, and then the day was over and I had done nothing. John Scalzi wrote a great post about how hard it is to stay creative in desperate times (and here at the LA Times) and it really resonated with me this year. It was hard to stay focused, and oftentimes, I could not.

Still, it was a fun and fruitful year, and lots of my goals became clarified by September. I started out the year strong with lots of walking and writing. We went to Disneyworld as a family in the summer and had the best time. And I enjoyed the fall in my wonderful park. I made a lot of decisions about the course of my career to come and kept the boat afloat through some hard times. All in all, I think I did rather well!

Let’s take a look at what I managed to do…

2015 was “The Year I Say No,” 2016 was “The Year I Give No Fucks,” and 2017 was supposed to be “The Year I Have Fun.”

Did I have fun this year with my career? No. Not always. I struggled a lot with my path on this author journey. I listened to too many people who gave me the wrong advice. I let other people tell me that my advice was worthless because I wasn’t successful. I had doubts. A lot of them. It wasn’t fun at all. I remember walking home one day from dropping the kids at school and thinking, “This is not ‘having fun,’ is it, Stephanie?”

It was then that I decided to do something about it. I left the majority of the Facebook author groups I belonged to, places that didn’t add anything positive to my life. I actually started my own author group on FB and filled it with people I love, which helped me have more fun. It wasn’t much longer before many of the author groups on FB either imploded or folded, so I feel like I did the right thing there.

I decided to get rid of things that did me no good, like my traditional newsletter. Now, I blog and my subscribers get all my posts instead, which is a much happier place for me. I got rid of paying for newsletter subscribers or paying for constant advertising that wasn’t working. It was really freeing! And I finally feel like my money is going towards things that make a difference.

Looking back at 2016 and the “Year I Give No Fucks” I’m really glad I had that base to work on for 2017. I continued to not care about stuff like making a best seller list or getting involved in a high-stakes box set or doing newsletter swaps with everyone. I told my awesome crit partner, Tracy, at some point that “I just pretend like I’m the only person on the planet publishing. I’m the only one who matters.” No competing. No comparisons. It’s just me and my books and whatever *I* want to do. That mindset has done me a lot of good in 2017.

All in all, I did well this year. I think my net income did grow because, even though I did spend a lot of money on ads, my gross income is much more than it was the previous year. I’ll have to do the books and find out, but I’m pretty sure I made *some* money. Hey, it’s better than nothing!

Books and Writing Goals Accomplished?

(All last year’s goals are in bold, and my notes on what happened with each come after)

I WILL PUBLISH FOUR BOOKS THIS YEAR. This is a tricky one because I technically published only 3 novels this year but then I also published a few other things. Here’s what came out:

THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE OPENS A TEA SHOP Feb 27, 2017 CRASH LAND ON KURAI Jul 18, 2017 SUMMER HAIKUS Oct 1, 2017 (Re-release) CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD Nov 15, 2017 OZONI AND ONSENS: A DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE NOVELLA Dec 7, 2017 (Previously only for newsletter subscribers)

I WILL WRITE ALL YEAR LONG. Nope, I didn’t do this. I even took time off! Why? Because this was the year I had fun, and there’s nothing that kills fun like working every damned day. I did find myself always in the midst of a first draft or revisions on something though. It was nice not to have a dry spell.

I WILL START UP A PEN NAME BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR. Nope, and I’m not sure I want a pen name now. I’m pretty sure I can do everything I want to do in publishing under this name. I don’t feel like starting over. That’s no fun.

I WILL MAKE SOME BOX SETS THIS YEAR. I did make a boxed set of the Nogiku Series and put it everywhere it needs to be. I also have a pre-order up for the Kami No Sekai Short Story Series that publishes in February. I’m not ready to box up The Daydreamer books yet. Maybe next year.

Marketing, Promotions, Advertising, and Social Media Goals Accomplished?

I WILL SPEND MONEY THIS YEAR. I did spend money this year on advertising. I bought Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors course and I used it to make effective FB ads which I will continue to do more of in 2018. I continually spend money on Amazon ads every day. I did spend some money on growing my mailing list, which I won’t be doing anymore.

I WILL INCREASE MY MAILING LIST TO 10,000 SUBSCRIBERS. If anything, I went backwards on this goal. I realized that growing my mailing list was only costing me money and not gaining me the fans I was hoping for. My open rates plummeted and only a few people bought books when I had new launches. So now I’m not even using MailChimp anymore and I’m just using my blog, something I wanted to do from the beginning but many people told me that was a mistake. I’m not listening to those people anymore.

MY SOCIAL MEDIA WILL NOT CHANGE. This is the one goal I stuck to like glue. I said, “My Facebook personal profile is a place for me to be personal. I will continue to talk to people via my Facebook Page. Twitter is where I put stuff I’m interested in. Other than that, I will share my work to Google Plus and LinkedIn. My Tumblr is still doing well, and I will continue to post to Instagram every day.” And yeah, I did all of that, and that’s what I plan on doing next year too. Next year, though, I will spend less time on Facebook, more time reading.

Personal Goals Accomplished?

I WILL WALK 1000 MILES THIS YEAR. Yay!! I accomplished my goal in early December and I loved having that goal to work towards all year round. It kept me sane and centered. I can’t wait to get back to it in January. I’ll be doing it again.

I WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE AUDIOBOOK CHALLENGE. I did this and posted about it to the blog yesterday. Check out the post here.

I WILL KNIT MORE. My yearly goal actually panned out this year! I finished off the shawl I had been working on for years and started a new shawl, which I’m almost done with!

I WILL USE MY INSTAPOT AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK. This definitely happened and I’m still very happy with it.

What else happened in 2017?

We did a fair amount of traveling in 2017 including visiting my family in Charleston, we went to the indoor waterpark, Kalahari, in Eastern Pennsylvania, and then our big DisneyWorld trip in June, which was my favorite family vacation of all time.

I redesigned the blog this past summer. I was ready for a change and wanted something more flexible and easier to keep up to date. I also redesigned my header images and the images that share to FB for all posts going forward. I’m happy with the design and I plan to keep this design for three or more years.

We had that cool eclipse! The solar eclipse was so much fun. We made our viewing boxes and talked a lot about the science behind the eclipse. I really enjoyed it.

After kicking butt on my walking goal all year and then crossing the finish line, I got really sick in December. The head cold finally morphed to an upper respiratory infection and sinus infection and I needed antibiotics for the first time in over two years.

I saw lots of wildlife in the park! Deer, ducks, geese, herons, kingfishers, and a fox are at the top of the list for my favorite encounters.

I started doing monthly videos during the summer, and I love them. It was hard to remember to always take video every day, but after a month, it became habit. Some days I take extra videos so that I have some back-ups in case I forget one day. No big deal. I cheat a little. Lol. Haven’t seen my monthly videos? They’re on YouTube, and I post them every month in my goals posts.

I gave up going to the gym. At some point during the summer, I got so tired of waiting for the men in the gym to share the weight machines that I gave up and stopped going. There was one day when one asshole was using two machines at once, and he got mad at me when I sat at one of the machines. Of course, all of these guys are huge and intimidating, and I just didn’t want to go through the trouble of giving them a piece of my mind. I plan to do more weight lifting at home in 2018.

I stopped dyeing my hair. Yep. I decided to go gray and stop dyeing my hair. I may do some funky colors again like I did in 2012 and 2013, but otherwise I just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of it anymore.

I bought a PC. This is a true shocker. I basically bought a PC to be my dictation machine. So far, so good. I don’t hate it, but I only use it when I’m writing a first draft. Otherwise, I use my Mac all the time.

And finally, I switched over to Vellum for all of my ebooks and print books. I’m very happy with the convenience of Vellum and I love the design of all of my books now. This is one of my favorite purchases of 2017!

My Favorite Blog Posts

These are my favorite blog posts of 2017!

Patience Is A Virtue – Good things come to those who wait… Yes, it’s true.

On The Merits Of Author Dreams – An essay in which I talk about dreams, success, and keeping going.

Losing (And Finding) My Way – I changed how I wrote and lost my way. Now I’m back to where I started.

The Results Of My Reader Survey – Here are the results of my reader survey! (Video)

Neon Beast – I finished this knitting project I had been working on for almost three years! Meet Neon Beast!!

Happy 4th Anniversary In Publishing! – It’s my fourth anniversary of being a publishing author! Here are all my positive and negative takeaways from this year and what to expect in Year Five and beyond…

Why I’m No Longer Using A Mailing List – I’m making the transition to using my blog with a notification system to reach my readers and here’s why.

Let’s Make Salmon Hot Pot! – Recipe – This is my favorite thing about winter! Enjoy this hot pot treat and fill up your belly with salmon soup and lots of veggies. You’ll love it.

Japan Tea Shop Inspiration – Tea is an important part of Japan and my books! Let’s look at some inspirational photos for Mei’s tea shop from THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE OPENS A TEA SHOP.

And That’s It!

Come back on January 1st to hear about my goals and aspirations for 2018!

A Look Back At 2017 was originally published on S. J. Pajonas

#creativity #goals #life #Look Back #traditions #travel #vacation #writing

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editfandom · 10 months ago

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The Boy and the Heron, 2023

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islandadventureswhales · 7 years ago

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Anacortes

3:30 PM It was an incredibly calm and beautiful evening out on the water. Sunbeams breaking through overcast skies, and Mt. Baker peaking through the clouds. We cut north up Rosario Strait, slowing to check out the Peapod Rocks National Wildlife Refuge. Here we found dozens of harbor seals, at least six turkey vultures, and a male Steller sea lion cruising near shore. We continued north and met up with the T36As just northwest of Barnes and Clark Island. We followed as the transient pod cruised towards Barnes Island, stopping all of a sudden to gather and play a bit before making an abrupt directional change in our direction. Cutting the engines, as a group we quickly moved around the boat to position ourselves in view of the oncoming pod. Unbelievably they surfaced not three feet off the stern!!! Giving those on the lower deck a free whale-spout shower and probably a heart attack too. It was the highlight of the evening, one not soon to be forgotten. The whales continued on to the Sisters where, based off of their behavior, it looked like they took down at least a couple of harbor seals before continuing their cruise into the sunset. We left them just off the northeast point of Clark Island, and turned to cruise down the Lummi Island coastline towards home. We saw three bald eagles on our return trip home, one perched high in the treetops on Lummi and the other two on Viti Rocks.

Port Angeles Our adventure began under an overcast sky and not a breath of wind. The Olympics lay hidden beneath a shroud of clouds. We set out and had some good looks at a handful of harbor seals playing both in the water and on the beach. we watched one roll around on his back getting a good scratch. We ventured northwest and after some searching we found two humpback whales traveling along in a slow leisurely manner flaking occasionally. We could identify one as MMX0006 and his companion looked familiar but was not in our ID guide. After spending some time with them we heard there were transient orcas not far away so we headed off in their direction. They made a deep dive just as we got on scene and they stayed down fora good fifteen minutes resurfacing a good mile away behind us. it was a stroke of luck that we were able to just catch a glimpse of them heading away from us in the distance. Off we went to try and reacquire them and see what they were up to..Once again they seemed to separate this time and come up on both sides of us. Apparently they were in a hunting mood looking for some seal snacks in the tide lines.We had a fe of them resurface not far from the boat sea we had a few really good looks and they appeared to be the T46B's. We traveled for as long as time would allow as they headed west zigging and zagging in the eternal search for food.We eventually had to depart and head back home after a great day with a double header.

La Conner Headed south down the slough. Harbor seals hauled out on the log tow. Great blue herons, black oystercatchers and cormorants as we exited the slough. Bald eagle perched on whidbey island. Through deception pass. Took a turn south and cruised into admiralty inlet. Way down south to pick up some orcas who were continuing to head south (away from us). It was the T65As and T137s. They were split into three groups. The two teenage boys were trailing the family groups who were traveling separately. They were cruising quite quickly. We turned back toward homeport. Captain tyler found us a steller sea lion hauled out on the channel marker. Then he found us a humpback whale! We didn't have much time to spend with our humpback, we were already running late. But what a great double header! Cruised home through the bridge and back to La Conner.

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islandadventureswhales · 7 years ago

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Transient Killer Whale Tail Slap - Anacortes, WA

Lunge Feeding Humpback - Port Angeles, WA

Anacortes

10:00 AM

We left the dock and right as we turned around the corner around Cap Sante a bald eagle flew right in front of the bow! We then turned and headed towards the South end of Lopez where we did a slow down and saw some harbor seals and purple star fish! We were about to leave and then we saw a spout from a humpback whale a few hundred yards away! We spent some time with this humpback and then went towards Canada where we heard reports of some Transient Orcas outside Victoria! When we got on scene with the orcas they were hunting some harbor seals right along the rocks! We spent sometime with the T18's and then had to make our towards home. Along the way we made a stop at whale rocks and saw some stellar sea lions hanging out on top of the rocks! We had a beautiful day filled with tons of wildlife!

Port Angeles

9:30 am

We started the day with fog rolling in, but as soon as we headed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the fog cleared and we had great sighting conditions! Before leaving the harbor, we caught a large group of harbor seals (which we would later refer to as orca sausages...) resting on the tip of Ediz Hook, just in front of the coast guard station. We made our way north to do some exploring when Captain Nate spotted an incredible sight, a lunge feeding humpback whale a few miles southeast of Victoria! We got to see the whale exploding out of the surface with its mouth agape over and over again! Incredible!!! Because the whale was so busy feeding, we never got an ID so the whale is still a mystery! After this encounter, we received reports of a group of transient killer whales only a few miles north! We headed in that direction but before we could get too far, a minke whale surfaced to the right of the bow and we got several excellent looks before it cruised away! Triple header!!! When we arrived on scene with the killer whales, we were thrilled to see the T18s! It was very clear that the whales were in serious hunting mode as they swam right into a group of rocky island and kelp beds full of harbor seals! We watched them circle the rocks, waiting for a clumsy seal until we had to make our turn south and head back to Port Angeles.

3:00 pm

As we left the harbor, we headed north after receiving reports of three humpback whales traveling nearby one another. As we arrived, we could spot three blows all within a mile of each other! We got great looks at all three whales who seemed to be traveling westward. Soon we headed to Race Rocks to check out more wildlife. The islands were jam packed with everything we could imagine! Tons of birdlife, harbor seals, elephant seals, stellar sea lions, California sea lions, and Ollie the sea otter! We then headed back south where we caught back up with one of the humpback whales who was now feeling curious and surfaced right next to the boat, giving us close looks at its tail! Beautiful evening on the water!

La Conner

9:00AM

Left south out of the slough. Caspian terns and great blue herons in the tidal flats. A mature bald eagle perched in a madrone tree and several black oystercatchers perched on the rocks. Headed out to the bridge and out toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Made our way all the way to Canada off of Trial Island. We got on scene with some orcas! It was the T18s (T18, T19, T19B and T19C). They were actively on the hunt. They were hunting a harbor seal. Then they headed into the Chain Islands and were swimming around the rocks and the bull kelp. They were all going in different directions. We spent a lot of time with them before we headed back toward the US. We were making our way into lunch when another report came in and boy, were we glad we skipped lunch and headed to the report! On our way to the report, we stopped by Whale Rocks and found about a dozen Steller sea lions! At south Lopez we found a humpback whale who was pretty erratic in its directions. It even popped up right next to the boat at one point! It surprised us all! The whale even caught us all off guard and did a huge breach off the south side of Lopez Island! No one was ready for that! It was incredible. Officially a double header!

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islandadventureswhales · 8 years ago

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Port Angeles:

Skies were rainy and gray today, but the wildlife didn't mind! As we left the harbor past Ediz Hook there were about 50 harbor seals hauled out on the beach. We decided to head east and do some exploring. It wasn't long before captain Nate aka "the man" spotted us a humpback whale. We got lots of excellent tail shots and close looks at the whale, who wasn't in the ID book. We then headed toward Dungeness spit where we saw a huge pod (100 or so) of harbor porpoises all around the tide lines. We got nice looks at the light house, a few rhinoceros aucklets, and some pelagic cormorants on a buoy nearby. We then headed back west to catch up with the humpback who hadn't moved too far from where we first found it. As we approached we got a massive full body breach!! After lots of excitement we got a few more good looks before we headed back to the dock.

Anacortes:

Although there was quite a bit of liquid sunshine coming down from the sky, you would have never known it from the fun we were having on the water today! We started our day off with a California sea lion hauled out on the Guemes Channel marker. After a quick look at the sea lion we continued northbound up Rosario Strait. We made it up to Peapod Rocks and saw eagles, harbor seals, and even a river otter! There were Steller sea lions out at Ewing Island as well. Great wildlife to start our day off! As we continued our way north in to Canada we came along to Tumbo Island where we spent some quality time with a humpback ID'ed as BCY0324. This individual whale did fluke us quite a few times -- they say that this is good luck... And boy did we get lucky!!! As we started to head back south after leaving our humpback whale we stumbled upon a group of transient killer whales headed north!! They were in main hunting mode and got a hold of a harbor porpoise. These whale celebrated with tail lobs and spy hops! Bald eagles were wanting to get in on the action as well, swooping in to grab different pieces of the poor harbor porpoise out of the water. This was something that not many people ever get to see and what an amazing experience to share with our guests. It was an incredible double header whale day!

La Conner:

Yesterday we went south in the channel after getting passed Shelter Bay we were joined by multiple eagles, harbor seals, great blue herons, and an osprey as we headed out Deception Pass to Lopez Pass. As we crossed Rosario we spotted a bunch of harbor porpoise. From there we continued into Fisherman's Bay on Lopez Island for our lunch stop. After leaving Lopez we headed west to Haro Strait where we found two humpbacks. Got some great looks and a few close passes. After that we headed inner island passing the occasional harbor seal as we headed down San Juan channel. We went back through Deception Pass and into the slough. There we saw dozens of bald eagles and blue herons... it was a great day!!!

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