San Diego Whale Watch
Gray Whale Alert! Gray Whale Alert! The San Diego portion of the gray whale migration has began! On a stunning Sunday on the Pacific, the PM passengers onboard the Privateer got a real treat of our very first gray whales of the southbound migration to the lagoons of Baja. Seas were incredibly calm and glassy … Read more
Captain Michael was confident we’d do better than yesterday, a day in which not a single whale watching company had any cetaceans to look at. I blame it on the Santa Ana winds coming from the east, the region of the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. The Santa Ana winds inhibit biological productivity, leading to … Read more
AM and PM trip we sunny and calm and beautiful! Truly perfect conditions for whale watching. Almost zero swell, no white caps and great visibility. It was a fairly quiet day on the water, lots of birds resting but we caught up with a traveling duo of humpback whales making their way to Cabo for … Read more
Happy Thanksgiving from the Pacific Ocean! She really provided, the conditions and wildlife have been so incredible the last few days it almost feels suspicious . This afternoon, we had glistening seas and hundreds of common dolphins off the drop off, but as the day went on it got even better. This evening, we got … Read more
The M/V Privateer with Captain Brian Piersall, our galley bartender Jen, deckhands Terrell, Joe, Taylor and Chuckie and naturalist Greg was ready for onboarding our intrepid guests and soon-to-be ocean passengers for the afternoon trip. After tossing the lines and embarking on our tour, we enjoyed seeing the antics of the California sea lions at … Read more
Stunning seas and skies! It still feels like summer out on the Pacific Ocean today, sunscreen was definitely needed for passengers on the Privateer on our PM tour today. Massive rafts of shearwaters were seen resting around the drop-off where there was a hugely acrobatic pod of short beaked common dolphins! They were showing off … Read more
After leaving the Mission Bay Channel entrance, we had a good sign: All clear horizons after a foggy morning. Above, a solar halo, a full circular rainbow, caused by sunlight refracting though high altitude ice crystals in cirrus clouds. We went 11-miles offshore to find cetaceans. We saw 1 humpback, then a pair, then a … Read more
What a spectacular afternoon on the water! The sunny blue skies made us forget the gloomy couple weeks we’ve recently had, and was a perfect day for whale watching. The Privateer rolled through the mild swell towards the northwest where we’d spotted wildlife on our morning trip. Beyond the drop-off about 11 miles from Mission … Read more
We had a whale of morning trip! Out to the west we noticed a massive spread of thousands of birds! They were diving indicating they were feeding. Once we got to the drop-off, we spotted a small pod of ~25 Offshore bottlenose dolphins! They were moving quickly to the north. We noticed their small puffy … Read more
Fall is just getting started out here! WE have WHALES!!!!! It’s always a good day when you start your trip with a tip on where to go….and that’s just how today started! BUT IT GOT BETTER! We knew we had to race 10 miles off shore to get out to the best stuff but before … Read more