Fortunately we were only being accosted by a very friendly and curious minke whale, so no harm was done.
We enjoyed a beautiful day on the water! We had three awesome trips with a bunch of wildlife seen all day.
On our morning trip we cruised out to the SW and passed the drop-off and spotted a fun pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were super playful and curious with our boat! We enjoyed seeing them surf in our wake and ride the bow! We cruised out to the west and Captain Michael spotted a spout right in front of us! We got super lucky and hung out with a pair of Blue whales! They were traveling SE toward Mexico! We were ecstatic to see their tall spouts! They arched their back and one consistently lifted its flukes as it went down for a dive. They were up for about 8-10 breaths and down for about 8-min dive times. We thought we lost them as we sighted a spout way down south about a mile away but then they popped up beside us. We got looks at the other whale again and confirmed it was a Humpback that was traveling due west! The clouds broke up and revealed blue skies and sunshine! The perfect end to a wonderful trip!
On our afternoon trip, we were so happy to have such nice conditions! We cruised to the SW and once we got to the drop-off we spotted a fun pod of ~150 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were really interested in our boat and observed them zoom up to our boat! The first place they went was the bow to hitch a ride and then they began to surf our wake! They moved from port to starboard and back again! There were around 10 cow/calf pairs in the pod! The moms seemed to be escorting the calves to the surf alongside our boat! Passengers squealed with excitement! We cruised to the 9-mile bank and then up to the north! A little quieter out to the west but the ride home was very smooth!
A spectacular sunset trip was had by the passengers of the Privateer to round out a sunny warm summer weekend.
Making our way Northwest toward the La Jolla Canyon an agile pod of ~150 long-beaked common dolphins were showing their numerous babies the best way to hunt for fish and surf along side an 87ft long boat. They were a real crowd pleaser today!
Departing from there and crossing over the drop-off we were surprised by the sneakiest Minke whale that popped up seemingly out of nowhere!
This whale was oh so curious about us keeping us stuck in place with engines off for the whales safety as it repeatedly circled around us checking us out! Multiple times it swam along parallel to the vessel white belly flashing towards the surface! It was the coolest. We got good looks at its full face while it poked its head out of the water “mugging us” before going on a slightly deeper dive. Every time we tried to depart the sneaky minke would circle back and pop up again keeping us held hostage to its antics.
If this wasn’t already a near perfect trip, we had the most gorgeous colourful sunset to finish off the day. You truly can’t beat it!
This week has been very much anything goes on the Pacific with such a vast variety of wildlife! So many different kinds of baleen whales spotted. We have multiple trips everyday this coming week and I’m excited to see what we have to discover. Come join us!
-Naturalists Vanessa & Ruth
