Monday, December 24, 2007

Another amazing day

Dolphin & sunset

We had another successful and amazing whale watching day yesterday. It was a sunny and clear, with the island (Catalina, that is) in perfect view. For our first trip, there were reports of 4-5 whales blowing past some oil islands, so the captain headed straight out there. It took a while to get out there, then we didn't see a single thing for a very very long time. Where were those 4-5 whales? Possibly Grey's, long gone, continuing their trek south. At moments like these, you start to lose hope and feel a bit disappointed that you will have to send all those guests back without having seen anything. That's the chance everyone takes when going out on these trips though. Those chances are worth it when you see something awesome though, which we finally did--a blow in the distance! It turned out to be the small blue whale that we've seen a couple of times this week already. To top the trip off, we came across about one to two hundred common dolphins on our way back. The second whale watch of the day was even better than the first. We headed out and found a fin whale, and while we were waiting for it to surface again after a deep dive, a superpod of common dolphins surrounded the boat. There were over a thousand of them, swimming and jumping and circling us. After forgetting about the fin whale and hanging out with the dolphins for a while, we went in search of the blue we saw earlier. The sunset painted the sky in beautiful shades, which made an awesome backdrop to the view of the island and our blue whale sighting. We found the small blue (now nicknamed "Jr.") again, he gave us a great fluke-wave-goodbye, and then we headed back, ending another great whale watching day. My job rocks.

Sun setting behind the island

Sunset & Catalina

1 comment:

  1. Those photos are amazing and the day sounds spectacular. Fin whale?!

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