Man OH MAN! Today was a STUNNING one for sure!
We got a little bit of everything out there, the morning started off with some adorable cuddly sea lion pups on the bait barge, quickly followed by some of the most beautiful glassy sea conditions I’ve seen in a while! The water looked like smooth ribbons of mercury flowing all around us. When the dolphins popped up, it made that glassy clear blue water even more spectacular! We were able to see dolphins swimming deep beneath the water completely surrounding us! Usually the water is so disturbed by wind that seeing dolphins below the surface is a challenge, not today! Our afternoon trip was lucky enough to find a blue whale that was swimming south along the fathom curve of the drop off but stopping to circle and feed intermittently. With the EXCELLENT driving skills of Cpt. Bryan, we were able to predict the area where the whale would pop up ( to a degree, it’s not an exact science). We waited stationary as the whale went for dives and GOT SO LUCKY the whale popped up RIGHT NEXT TO US on our starboard side TWO TIMES! The first time it was so close that we felt the heavy rumble of this gargantuan whales breath before we could even turn around to see it!
Once in a lifetime kind of day!
Why did the blue whale blush? Because it saw the ocean’s bottom! We had such an amazing sunset trip! Straight out of the jetties we encountered a pod of ~25 long-beaked common dolphins. We followed the birds which led us to another massive pod of ~100 long-beaked common dolphins. They escorted us out to sea and played alongside our boat. Then, just on the edge of the drop-off in about ~430 feet of water, we saw a massive spout! We got closer and were able to confirm a BLUE WHALE! We hung out with this beautiful blue whale for several breath cycles. On the last breath cycle, the blue whale popped up right next to our port side bow! Then, it made a c-turn and started to head towards our boat for incredibly close-up looks! We even got to enjoy a beautiful sunset and an almost full moon! Please come out for some salty fun on the sea!
Naturalist,
Alison & Melissa
