We had a FINtastic time today on the water from start to FINish! We started off the trip with spotting a gray whale about ~3 miles offshore in ~200ft of water. We hung out with the gray whale for a few breath cycles. It was going down for ~5 minute dives and we even saw the tail flukes three times! We wished it whale and continued on our journey! We spotted another gray whale off of our port stern. It was acting a little elusive so we kept travelling out west towards deeper water. Then, we spotted a fin whale spout! This fin whale was also being a bit elusive so we kept moving on. Then, we found another fin whale! This fin whale was being a bit more showy so we hung out with them for a few breath cycles. It was going down for ~7 minute dives. Then, we found another pair of fin whales! They, came up right next to the boat!! On our way back towards Mission Bay, we encountered a pod of ~100 short-beaked common dolphins. Then, out of no where we found ANOTHER pair of fin whales for a total of SIX fin whales and TWO gray whales! We have another trip coming up so please stay tuned! Stay Fin & Fabulous friends!
We enjoyed the calm before the storm on our beautiful sunset cruise! We enjoyed the super calm and glassy seas and amazing visibility! We pointed our nose to the west and after reaching the drop-off we noticed some splashes in front of us! We ventured on keeping our eyes peeled. We caught up with two huge pods of Long-beaked Common dolphins! The first pod was scattered over a mile or two and had an approximate 200 individuals! We continued to the north, when a very small wispy spout was sighted under a handful of gulls and pelicans. We pushed out half a mile and waited to see if a baleen whale would surface, but we had no luck. We continued on when Captain John spotted the wispy spout again. We waited but yet again no resight of the mystery whale. We stayed out as long as we could and then followed a pod of ~150 Long-beaked Common dolphin in toward the coast. The sunset was beautiful highlighting the coast with dark purple and pink.
We will be offline tomorrow due to rough seas, but we will back on Wednesday! Sea you then!
Naturalists,
Melissa & Vanessa
