We had a fun dolphin day out on the water! Common dolphins were the star of the show!
On our morning trip we set out to the west and sighted huge rafts of birds all sitting on the water. Just south of them we spotted a fun, energetic pod of ~50 Long-beaked Common dolphins. They raced all around the boat spending time on the bow and surfing our wake. We spotted the single calf that was in the pod! It was so adorable to see next to mom! We ventured out to the north along the drop-off and out to the west covering over 25-miles of water. The ride home was smooth! On our way in the Mission bay jetties, we caught a HUGE set of waves that towered about 7-ft high! It was crazy to see it surge almost out of nowhere. The average swell at the time was about only 1-ft! We set a brand new record high with a speed of 17.6kts for the Privateer! Our average speed is ~10kts!
We round up our new excited whale watchers and cruised out west on our sunset trip! We spotted one Inshore bottlenose dolphin feeding near the south jetty. We got to the drop-off and noticed a few miles west a huge feeding frenzy with hundreds of birds diving into the water making a big commotion! Under all the birds were hundreds of Long-beaked Common dolphins! We were stoked to see so many bait balls with dolphins controlling and corralling them up to the surface! We jumped from bait ball to bait ball and hung out with more and more dolphins, giving us a grand total of ~800 Long-beaked Common dolphins! On our way home we enjoyed a stunning sunset!
Please enjoy some of the best photos of the day!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
