Vanessa James
A breaching whale? How lucky are we! We ran out to the west and quickly found a pod of short‑beaked common dolphin that were in their best form — leaping out of the water and putting on a show for everyone on board! Then we got to hang with the coolest humpback whale. It breached … Read more
Back out of Mission Bay, we jetted as fast as the Privateers 2 large John Deers could take us to go see the 2 humpback whales we encountered on the first trip. Fortunately, they stayed pretty close to the same area where they were feeding and got to spend some more time with the duo … Read more
There were birds (including rare sightings), mola-molas, dolphins, and whales! I can’t think of a better start to the week than getting out to the Pacific to see such an abundance of wildlife. On the drop, we first found a pod of ~100 short-beaked common dolphins splashing around, but we had to get to the … Read more
We ran way out west on our afternoon trip and spent time with a mother and calf humpback whale. Baby was coming up every 3 minutes and mom every 5, with an ENORMOUS tail throw and a HUGE breach on approach! They stayed at the surface and gave us incredible looks. Our sunset had so … Read more
High Jumpers lit up the skyline tonight on BOTH of our cruises! Short‑beaked common dolphins and a pod of bottlenose dolphins — and EVERYONE wanted to be airborne. So many acrobatics out there! The shorties were popping off like popcorn kernels on a hot pan, exploding across the horizon. The bottlenose were more mellow at … Read more
Glassy beautiful seas immediately revealed a feeding frenzy of 350 long-beaked common dolphins, pelicans, cormorants, gulls and even a rare red-billed tropicbird! Absolutely stunning and special trip on the Privateer this morning. Naturalist Sandy
On our morning trip, we cruised out to the west and spotted a few splashes out in deeper water! We got to the drop-off and were stoked to see an awesome pod of ~75 Offshore bottlenose dolphins headed to the south! There were lots of little juveniles and cow/calf pairs sighted throughout the whole area! … Read more
Some nights on the water look like something out of a daydream, and tonight was one of those nights. Miss Pacific was feeling a bit feral, with a 3–4 ft swell and a steady 11 knots of wind, with gusts up to 16. We were getting waves of water splashing all the way up to … Read more
A long-beaked common dolphin pod of ~75 individuals graced the Privateer as we made our way into the jetty this afternoon! Beautifully cutting through the surface of the water and surfing our wake. Perfect end to a sunny afternoon on the water. Naturalist Sandy