Vanessa James
The Privateer sailed South past the end of Point Loma into a bustling whale feeding ground! An hour into the search we found a Blue Whale in the midst of hunting who stuck around for the rest of the ride. As if things couldn’t be exciting enough a fin whale popped up at the same … Read more
We set out this afternoon and found the ABSOLUTE jackpot. We sighted the largest animal on Earth migrating north along the drop‑off. From a distance we saw a HUGE plume erupt from the ocean — nothing else on the planet moves that much water with a single breath. The sun came out for us and … Read more
The Privateer headed out this morning in some gray skies and western swells but didn’t let that stop us from having fun on the water! After a trip to La Jolla Canyon, we came across some playful bottlenose dolphin 🐬(my favorite toothed whale!). We left the bottlenose and continued towards shore and saw some splashes … Read more
Dolphins all day — and the ocean is changing in all the right ways. Common dolphins have been rolling in lately, and today they showed up in big numbers. But the real headline is this: our water is looking GREEN again. After a winter of unusually crystal‑clear, deep‑blue water in San Diego, that shift toward … Read more
The morning whale watch left us mesmerized by dolphins a plenty! Both long and short beaked common dolphins danced in the morning light! Lots of babies as the spring time trend of seeing calves continues! We even got great looks at the largest bony fish on our planet, the ocean sunfish! After hanging with this … Read more
We had a FIN-tastic day on the water! We caught up with 3 Fin whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins and Common dolphins throughout the day! On our morning trip, we cruised to the SW and encountered ~7 Pacific white-sided dolphins right out of the gate! They were zooming around hanging out with a few California sea … Read more
We headed out to an ocean TEAMING with life today! We found dolphins everywhere we looked! IMMEDIATELY, we came across a pod of hunting long‑beaked common dolphins feasting on fish. We’d barely left the jetties when we found them, so we headed out west! The further we went, the more dolphins we found! We located … Read more
Despite gray skies we had a beautiful day with calm seas and great visibility out on both of our trips! On our afternoon trip, we cruised up to the NW and spotted splashes on the horizon! We aimed for the densest spot and sure enough there was a scattered pod of Short-beaked Common dolphin! They … Read more
Breach-fest 2026!!! We had a blast out on the water this morning with a friendly little humpback whale! At first, Captain Michael spotted a fin whale blow in the distance. The fin was big and beautiful but took a deep dive and left the area. Luckily, a juvenile humpback was nearby! Passengers and crew had … Read more
It was MINKE MADNESS out there! On our morning trip, we caught up with FOUR Minke whales and hundreds of Long-beaked Common dolphins! Tons of birds were surrounding the area and feeding! On our afternoon trip we caught up with ~700 Long-beaked Common dolphins off of La Jolla! To start the day, we cruised out … Read more