Thar she blows!

A beautiful day on the water today - whale watching, with someone else doing the driving.

We decided to drive to Coronado Island and take the ferry across San Diego Bay, instead of trying to find a parking place on the waterfront in downtown San Diego.

We were there early enough to get a bite to eat before catching the ferry.  Here it comes...

We sat on top to take in the views on the way across the bay...

Stepping off the ferry, the whale watch boat we were taking was on the next dock over.  Easy.

I would guess the capacity of that boat is 150+... not exactly an intimate whale watch experience.  While waiting in line to get on the boat, the naturalists came to visit with the crowd - 5 volunteers from the Museum of Natural History.  Right on time, we started loading.  As with most big boats, there was the obligatory photo with the life ring...

On our way out of the bay, we were passed by two inflatables - Navy Seals on maneuvers...

Another whale watch boat, both of us heading out of the bay, into the Pacific...

The water was beautiful - looking back towards San Diego, with the base on the northern part of Coronado Island in the foreground...

A nuclear sub coming in...

Point Loma...

Out in the Pacific...

The first mate announced, "For those who enjoy bird watching, there are several brown boobies on that marker.  Plus, I just like to say 'boobies' on the microphone."

It wasn't long before we saw the first "blow"...

A gray whale.  OK, we have officially seen a whale on this whale watch cruise.  It wasn't spending much time on the surface...

I did manage to get a shot of the flukes before it disappeared...

We saw a few white-sided Pacific dolphins...

OK, whale and dolphins.  I am used to the naturalists on our boats engaging the guests... not so much with these folks.  They offered to answer any questions, but they didn't build up any excitement or anticipation.

Before we saw the first whale, we were sitting at a table on the top deck - two ladies asked if they could take a chair or two from our table.  "Sure.  Or, you are welcome to sit with us if you like."  I thought they were mother and daughter, but two friends from Wisconsin.  We visited for a while, then one of them asked, "Have you ever been on a whale watch trip before?"

;-)

We were able to give them a lot more information than they were getting from the crew.  They were very excited to be out of the cold weather... we understand.

Back to the whales...

The captain came on the intercom and said that they think the whales can hear the radio frequency put out by the marker in the photo above... apparently, they frequently find gray whales right here.

These whales are not as surface active, nor as photogenic, as the Orcas.  But, some nice whale tail views...

The captain let us know that he got word that there is a humpback reported a few miles away - we started heading that direction.

The blow...

Not a huge humpback... but it is a humpback.  Even more shy than the grays we saw earlier...

This one gave us the slip a couple times.  It wasn't moving fast, but not spending much time at the surface.  One of the naturalists actually said, "Well, this isn't the best humpback viewing - they are usually a lot more active than this!"  Way to make people feel good about their trip.  I did get this nice flukes shot...

We spent a lot of time bopping and searching.  Then, another blow...

Time to head back in.  On the way, I saw what looked like lunge-feeding in the distance...

Too far to tell, and I don't think anyone else saw it.  I asked one of the naturalists if they had Minke whales... "Yes, but we don't see them very often."  I mentioned the bait balls, but they were already focused on getting back in.  All in all, not a bad day of whale watching.  Joan said, "You do a better job of positioning the boat for photographs."

;-)

I looked again - yep...

On the way in, we did see sea lions on some docks...

A Navy destroyer heading out...

Our new friends asked if we'd be going to the Gas Light Quarter for the Fat Tuesday partying... um, no.  ;-)

With some fortunate timing, we stepped off the boat, went to the next dock, and got on the ferry.  If we had missed this one, it would have been another hour for the next.  And we were ready to head for home. 

Looking to the east, we were treated to the last rays on the skyline...

And to the west...

A nice day on the water.