Dolphins and Whales Galore!!! What a Day!!!

What an incredible day we had!!! As we shared with you on Thursday, we were heading out yesterday to Dana Point to go on a dolphin and whale watching trip. We go as often as we can, but these incredible animals never cease to impress and amaze us.

But before we get to the actual trip, we have to tell you about this really cool sailing instructor who saw us taking a picture of Tiki Boy in the harbor. She asked what he was and what on earth we were doing; so we explained the story. She immediately said "Well, Tiki Boy needs to learn how to sail, doesn't he?" We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders in agreement and said "Sure!". So she grabbed Tiki Boy, and off we headed to the dock. First she asked how old Tiki Boy was. We said he was about 2 weeks old. She replied "Ok, then he needs a children's life vest....can't go on the dock without a life vest". She picked up a life vest and placed Tiki Boy safely inside.

As we got to the dock, she approached two young sailing instructees who were maybe around 9 or 10 years old. She asked them if they would take Tiki Boy out in their sail boat with them. Of course, these poor kids looked at all of us as if we were nuts, but they shyly agreed. After about 5 minutes sailing away, the guardian boy of Tiki Boy yelled back to us that Tiki Boy was scared. He then began talking to Tiki Boy, saying "It's o.k. Tiki Boy". Just too adorable. Tiki Boy was brought back safely to shore, and off we headed to OUR boat. Sad that a piece of wood got to go out on the water before we did!!!

Our group headed out on the larger catamaran that is now part of the fleet of Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari. Wow, that boat can fly!!! Anyhow, just about 2.5 miles off the coast, we came upon our first whale...a Blue Whale...the largest mammal on the planet. And boy was he big. The captain estimated him to be about 80 feet long, or the equivalent of a 10 story building. We watched him for about 45 minutes or so. We were able to tell where the whale was surfacing by the spray of water from his blow hole just before he surfaced. Then we would see his back slide along the surface as he moved back below the surface. Some times he would do this three or four times, then stay down for 5 to 10 minutes, then off in the distance we would see the tell tale spray and race over in that direction to catch up with him. It was amazing how close we were able to get.

After some time, someone in our group spotted another blow spray in a different direction, so we headed over to watch a Fin Whale. Fin Whales are not as big as the Blues, but just as amazing to watch. We watched him surface and go back under several times before heading off to look for dolphins. Unfortunately, neither of them showed their tale this trip. Captain Dave told us that Blues and Fins only show their tails about twenty percent of the time.

As we were cruising along, closer to shore, we could see what looked like white caps. As we got near, it was clear that what we were seeing was about 650 dolphins swimming and leaping. There were also hundreds of Pelicans diving into the water and sitting on the surface. Captain Dave explained that when the Dolphins feed, they stir fish up to the surface and the Pelicans feed on them. Several of the Dolphins played with our catamaran by racing along next to, in front of and under us. We saw Dolphins come towards the side of the boat, then turn to line up with us and stay along side for quite a distance before zooming off.

After playing with the Dolphins for a while, we headed back to shore. On the way, we had one more surprise. Floating near the surface was this large round white flat object. It was an Ocean Sun Fish. At first, S thought it was either dead or dying. Don't dead fish float on their sides? Then it started swimming. It turns out that it was just sunning itself just below the surface, hence the name Sun Fish.

After spending over two hours out in the ocean, we were treated to brownies as we headed back to the harbor. Usually K hands hers off to S because, out on the water, the thought of food wants to make her barf. But this time K wore these little wrist bands that combat sea sickness and they worked like a charm. No extra brownie for S.

We took 577 pictures, but here are a few of our favorites from this incredible day for you to enjoy.