We had another epic day on The Bay today with perfect weather and friendly humpbacks.
It’s awesome to have a mother and yearling take an interest in us by coming up to our boat and just floating there looking at us 3-feet away. We also had the youngster spy-hop a couple of times.
It looks like the Humpbacks are starting to come closer to shore. They’ve been between 8-13 miles out lately.
Unfortunately, the weather has been picking up quick in the early afternoon, making the going rough.
It was nice to be able to get in some decent marine life viewing before the winds picked up. We seem to be getting into our spring weather cycle. Manageable in the morning and then whipping up quick in the afternoon.
We had whales pretty close in still. So that was good. Pretty much straight out in front of Moss about 6-8 miles.
But the leaping Pacific White-sided dolphins were what I enjoyed the most. The cool people call them “Lags”. That’s short for their scientific name: Lagenorhynchus obliquidens.
We had an active pod of a 200-300 of them riding with us. Jumping out of the water, racing all around the boat. It was a lot of fun.
Today was a trip that we’ll be talking about for years. So often when we’re talking with passenger’s, we get questions like:
“What’s the neatest thing you’ve seen out here?” I’ll be drawing on today’s trip to answer that question.
Humpback whale lunge feeds next to the boat. Photo: Epstein, 05-16-13.
The experience was truly remarkable. We had four very “friendly” humpback whales circling the boat, going under the boat, “logging” right next to the boat. The animals would swim up to the boat, surface within feet of the boat and let out a massive blow. This was what we call a full-sensory whale watch experience. We could smell the foul breath of these massive animals. We could feel the spray of their breath on our face as it condensed when it hit the air.
If we weren’t careful and happened to take a breath or have our mouths open when they spouted, we would get blasted in the face and a taste of the condensed spout. They were that close. Literally 2′-3′ away and blowing. Four whales for just over an hour.
And the marine conditions were near perfect. I was able to shoot some amazing video that we’ll be posting.
The good news is that there have been plenty of humpbacks at the mouth of The Bay. The bad news is that the mouth of The Bay is 10-12 miles out. But once we get out there, there have been nice concentrations.
The marine conditions have been getting in the way over the last week or so. It’s been manageable in the morning then comes up quick and strong by noon.
Today things changed around a bit. We had humpbacks between 6-8 miles out. So that was a positive change. And it’s a good thing because by the time we got to these humpbacks the wind picked up something fierce. But not before we had some amazing looks of two full-size whales. These were huge, full-size animals.
Their tail flukes were probably 8′-10′ across. And to top it off, on the way in we had a single humpback throw down a few massive tail-lobs. This is where half their body comes flinging out of the water tail first and then the animal slams it’s tail on the water. It’s almost as good as breach.
The weather has been a little on the unstable side lately. We have had decent conditions in the morning, then things get pretty mixed up by the afternoon.
Today we had some excellent views of a handful of humpbacks that were circling the boat as they fed about 20′ below the surface.
Throw in a nice tail lob and fluke flash and call it good. The weather picked up quick. After about 30 minutes checking out these animals, the pesky wind-waves made for some rocking and rolling. But we still managed to spend well over an hour hanging with about 4 humpbacks and we could see other blows in the distance.
After a while, the wind picked up and made the going rough. So we turned around and rode it home.
Today was probably the nicest conditions we have had all year. What a nice change to the washing machine-like conditions we’ve been dealing with over the last week. Such a treat. The conditions make all the difference. Easier to shoot, easier for everyone.
We also had a nice light load. Our trips during the week have been an excellent choice for passengers who want to go out with small groups. Today we only had 10 people. We are probably the only boat on The Bay where you can basically get a private charter-like experience with your own personal captain and marine biologist. That’s really what we’re all about. Dorris and I own the company and we also take you out.
So if you want truly personal trip with small groups, book your whale watching trip with us during the week if you have the flexibility. Our weekend trips are still less crowded than any other boat. Usually under 30 passengers. Most of the times less.
The humpbacks continue to a sure thing. Although, over the last week or so the sea conditions have been a bit lumpy. So we’ve been limited on where we can go.
But today was very nice. Little to no win and just a small swell running. So we were able to get out to where the large concentrations of krill and whales were. There were between 10 and 15 whales in the area.
We’ve been having to go about 10-12 miles out to the mouth of the canyon to get into the real action. Massive krill blooms and feeding humpbacks. We also had reports of more humpbacks to the south.
Another fine day on The Bay. We had at least 6-10 humpbacks in same area we’ve been finding them near the Soquel Canyon. We also heard reports of more further out.
And the orcas have been showing up daily for about the last week or so. Usually a mixture of different groups. But they’ve mostly been on the move. It’s hard to get good views when they’re moving and the sea conditions were a bit lumpy. So we had a hard time keeping up with them.
We usually get our best looks when they are on a kill. But that wasn’t the case today. They were pretty crafty. They would go under and pop up after about 8 minutes 1/4+ mile away. And by the time we got within nice viewing range, they would dive for another 8 minutes and continue the cycle. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get some better looks.
But we did have some nice looks at a handful of humpbacks. So that was good. Plenty of room still on our Thursday trip. It should be a light load.
Incredible is all I can say. What a difference a day makes. On Sunday we had a hard time finding one humpback. There were various reports of scattered animals and orcas moving at a fast pace to the Southwest. But the weather was ruff and that limited where we could go. So we ended up finding a humpback that was just kind of cruising. And then the wind picked up and made the going rough.
Monday was a whole different story. We had some fisherman reports of whales over near the Soquel Canyon to the Northwest of Moss and a few more to the Southwest. Also reports of dolphins in the area. So we were pretty stoked about that.
But as we got closer to the area, it turned out to be the land of whales and honey. Spouts in all directions. Breaching and tail lobbing. Lunge feeding. Things have turned around in The Bay and spring is here with a vengeance. We also heard reports of about 15+ killer whales further out. But the wind picked up too quick and hard for us to get out there. So we just hunkered down with a handful of lively humpbacks.
What a day. It just keeps getting better and better. The problem was that the wind picked up quick and made for some rocking and rolling. But we had some amazing looks and an outstanding trip. Too rough for me to shoot any good photographs though. Remarkable none the less. Sometimes I just need to hold the boat so passengers are as comfortable as possible.
We did a crack of dawn orca trip with a handful of regulars and had an amazing experience. Just remarkable. We were pulling out of the slip by 6:00 AM. Just starting to get light. Coffee in hands to do some orca hunting. Remarkably, we found them with the help of some salmon fisherman.
After finding a boring humpback, we heard reports from fisherman that there were orcas the East side of the Soquel canyon so we made a course.
A nice group of about 7 animals had made a kill and were hanging in the area feeding. They made multiple passes under the boat and alongside the boat.
Excellent sighting. We never saw what it was they killed. But there were a lot black-footed albatross feeding on the leftovers.