We had an amazing day with 2 Humpbacks, ~500 Long-beaked Common dolphins and incredible visibility!
We could see out to San Clemente Island and far down south to Mexico today! The seas were flat and calm and felt like we were cruising on a lake! We set out to the west and found a couple of huge bird piles on the horizon! We got out to almost 10-miles from shore and spotted dolphins splashing all around! As soon we caught up with them, they began darting straight for the bow! Then a spout was seen to the south of us! It was a tall bright spout which made it easy to track! Surprisingly it was headed north, likely to all the bird and dolphin activity we passed to catch up with it. It came up for 3-4 breaths and was down for only ~5-min. We even caught glimpses of the beautiful RAINBLOW! It was absolutely stunning! While waiting for it to surface, we saw it come up and roll around in kelp! It were lucky to see it swim sideways with its pectoral flipper stretched out so it was giving sharky vibes! Another humpback came charging through and we managed to get a couple looks before we had to head in!
We have another trip tonight and will be back with updates!
We are back our beloved Privateer after a month of repairs and upgrades! She was working like a charm! At our furthest point we were about ~14 miles offshore, we found a feeding frenzy of shearwaters, western gulls and about ~300 long-beaked common dolphins! They were riding along the bow and surfing in our wake! We saw so many calves too! Then, as we were heading in towards Mission Bay, we were surprised by a FIN WHALE that surfaced right in front of our bow! We also saw the most beautiful sunset and super vibrant BIOLUMINESCENCE when coming back in this evening! We’re excited for some more ocean fun tomorrow!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
