Eagle on Eagle

Yesterday we sailed in the annual Port to Port race from Port Ludlow to Port Townsend. This Bald Eagle perched atop Port Ludlow’s totem pole to officiate before the start of the race. Although we finished first, we came in fifth (there is a handicap procedure based on estimated boat performance). It was a glorious Pacific Northwest day with sapphire skies, snow-covered Mount Rainier and Mount Baker looming by the snowy Cascades and the spiky snowy Olympic range in the other direction. I saw six river otters pretending to be sea otters. Six! Were they a family, a Mother’s Day celebration, a gang? Dozens of fat Rhinoceros Auklets bounced and dove into the Puget Sound. Dozens of black and white Pigeon Guillemots dove, too, or flew away from our boat, flashing their vermillion webbed feet.