Whale Watching

This morning we drove to the marina at Mission Bay and set sale on the Privateer. Going out on a short cruise in the Pacific was a first time experience for the two of us. We could not have had a more gorgeous day or been luckier at seeing "sea mammals."

Not far out from the bay we came across a pod of "common" dolphins. Our guide and naturalist on board told us that for every dolphin that we could see on the surface there were 6 or 7 below the surface. She estimated that the pod we encountered had from 800 to 1000 dolphins in it. The dolphins were moving rather than feeding. They were leaping above the water. There was no way that our slow camera could capture the fast action of the dolphins. By the time the camera snapped the dolphins were below the surface of the ocean again.

With our small amount of newly acquired knowledge, we think that the dolphins that we saw off the beach in Del Mar and Solana Beach several years ago were bottlenose dolphins.

Further out we were lucky enough to see a blue whale with her calf. The first sighting of a whale is the spray that shoots up into the air when they surface. We did not get very close to the whales so we did not get any spectacular photographs, but it was very exciting to see them and to hear them. Not far away from the mother and calf was a third whale.

This has been one of the most memorable days we have had during our years of coming to stay close to the ocean.

The boat/ship that we were on was recently acquired by the fishing tour company in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The boat was sailed to Florida and from there was loaded onto a transport ship and carried through the Panama Canal to San Diego. We hope that the company does well in its new venture.