Sail with the birds?

"Sail with the Whales" is our official slogan, (www.sailwiththewhales.com) but today we enjoyed a great sail with the birds. Our trip began in the early afternoon and we soon found out that the resident orcas were unfortunately heading for and nearing the open ocean about 70 miles away. It was such a nice day that it hardly fazed us though. We cruised along amongst the islands in the sun and looked at a couple eagles nests. 1 nest inparticular had a chick in it and we had prime viewing of the mother eagle ripping apart a fish into small peices for the eaglet. At one point the eaglet even stood up on the side of the nest and beat its downy wings. We also saw plenty of Dall's porpoises during the trip and at one point they surfaced right behind us. The wind picked up from about 0 knots to 10-15 knots during the last half of the afternoon and it made for an enjoyable sail home. We hoisted both our main and stay sail and made close to the same speed that we would have gone under power. Theres nothing quite like a good sail on a beautiful day. Today was also the first day of the summer that we have seen any Red-necked Phalaropes. These dainty little birds love to feed on the surface of the water and are more common during August when they come into the area in the thousands on their return from breeding at higher latitudes. It is likely that todays birds were early migrants and the first to head south towards their winter habitat in the southern hemisphere. We also had the good furtune to see a Cassin's Auklet chick, plenty of Rhinoceros Auklet's and a couple of Common Murres.