Mood: special
From the Whaler Sightings log.... had to share! AM cruise: "Ok, we have this one on video -- 3 miles of dolphins! About a football field in width- awesome! Plus- the most unusual whale sighting - a juvenile gray whale lingering amongst the dolphins, floating on its' back - just below the surface; rolling around. It held the front half of its' head above the surface for a bit. Small blow then a shallow dive. Incredible view of the whale just below the surface. Appeared to be ok; enjoying being w/ the dolphins!
... On the way back in we saw the 'tsunami' wall of dolphins. Also large herds of sea lions. OH Oh -Saw a gray in the bay! We saw just the arch, knuckles of the whale (by the 2nd marker along John Wayne's jetty). WOW - This was a news worthy & eventful morning!"
PM Cruise:
"Spotted the "Bay Gray" again by the Jetty, on the way out of the bay. 8 miles out- we saw a group of 25-30 Rissos with a pair of bottlenose (w/ smaller calf) intermingling with the Rissos. 2 Rissos leaped out and slapped the water with their heads.
On approach @ about 400 yds we saw blows & then a total of 12 breaches! Turned out to be a group of 9 adult Gray whales! They were very relaxed with us - parallel swim for approx. 40 minutes. Lots of blows with rainbows misting out to sea. One very large adult came near the boat to 'check us out'. Gentle giants cruising Northbound @ about 10-11 miles out. Saw one solo whale on the way back in" (excerpt from the Whaler Sightings log)