The Humpbacks are still cruising south in beautiful, calm seas! We encountered 3 different individuals!
On our morning trip, we set out to the SW and once we got to the drop-off we caught up with a huge very spread out pod that was nearly 1000 dolphins! They were spread out over a few miles! There was very little wind making for supreme GLASSY waters! We could see EVERY move the dolphins were making while down 10-feet below us! We heard from our other whale friends there was a whale sighting to the SE of us, so we booked out of there waving goodbye to our dolphriends! We got great looks at southbound humpback that showed us its tail after a few breaths! We spotted another spout to the south and checked it out! This one was a bit elusive but got great looks at its tail! We were so far south that we could see part of downtown SD, and the Coronado bridge! We turned around and enjoyed the sights up the coast! Bird highlights was a couple of Coco’s booby’s! One dove catching some fish right next to our boat!
On our next afternoon adventure, we set sail to the NW as the other whales were almost to Mexico! Only a few miles from shore, Captain Michael spotted a Humpback headed south! It was down for about 9-min initially, but after spending time with it, we witnessed incredible surface active behaviors! First, the Humpback swam right up to a KELP paddy and rolled around it! Michael put his drone up and watched it DANCE in the kelp!! SPA day! It continued on and before we realized it, it began swimming toward us! It started on the starboard side, crossed the bow and popped up 20-ft from our port side!! Everyone was stoked! We loved getting MUGGED! It got a few more looks and carried on to the north. We searched and searched off La Jolla but it was quiet. We turned home and a small pod of ~45 Long-beaked Common dolphins appeared and we got great looks as they surfaced around us. Some even bow-rode the Privateer!
Come on out! Hop on our boat for a fun time!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
