It isn’t raining as I set out on my paddle this morning, but it isn’t sunny either.  The cloud cover is almost down to the water.  

I explored the shoreline around the anchorage, where I’d found a pretty creek yesterday. 

On one of the islets, I spotted some Indian Paintbrush blooming.

Then, I headed for The Narrows. A large granite face at the narrows caught my eye.  As I studied it, I spotted some birds way up on narrow ledges.  When I zoomed in on them, I discovered that they were pigeon guillemots.   I’ve never seen guillemots on land before.   I wonder if they’re nesting up there.  They certainly wouldn’t have to worry about predators.

I was trying to get some decent shots of the guillemots, when I looked up and saw two fast runabouts  speeding toward the narrows at full throttle.  Rocks divide the narrows into two channels.  Since I was in the narrower channel, which has the least depth, I assumed the boats were headed for the wider and deeper channel.  I was right up against the rock wall, with no place to go, and they just kept heading right for me.  I thought surely they would see me when they got closer, but if they did, they didn’t seem to care.  I figured if they didn’t run me down, their wakes would probably capsize me.  The first boat barreled right past me at full speed, not 30 feet away.  It was touch and go for a while, but I managed to stay upright.  The second boat slowed down when he saw me and waved.  Nice.  

On my way back to the boat I watched an osprey fishing.  It didn’t take him long to snag a fish and head for a tree… a very tall tree.  I managed to capture these photos at maximum zoom.