We spotted a bunch of splashing from a distance and upon closer inspection, it was a bunch of whales, surface feeding! These were fin whales, the second largest. At first we thought it was one whale, but then we started counting – at least 12 fin whales and 12 blue whales – maybe more! We didn’t know where to look! It was spout, after spout, after spout. We had fin whales under the boat, next to the boat, rolling over, lunge feeding. I attached a picture that I snapped off real quick of a fin whale at our stern, with the Coronado Islands in the background! At one point, a minke whale joined us, checking out our boat briefly before continuing on his merry way.

As we headed in, we had bottlenose and scattered commons. Then, a few miles outside of the bay – a spout! And a different one at that – this time, it was the distinctive heart-shaped blow of a gray whale! Not only that, but a mother and her calf, heading north from their breeding grounds. It was a remarkable opportunity for our guests to witness FOUR different baleen whale species in one day!

Sunday was a lot less sunny, but equally remarkable! Our trip started off with some offshore bottlenose dolphins around the 100 fathom mark, surfing our bow through the lake-like conditions. Then, we get a call from our friends out of the big bay – they spotted a blue whale! We zoomed over and lo-and-behold, it’s one of our local favorite blue whales, Lefty! Lefty is so-named because he is missing 90% of his left fluke, either from an accident or a birth defect. He is an awesome whale and it’s great to see him in our waters once again. He looks strong and healthy and that made us all very happy. We also came across a small minke whale, who came close enough to the boat for us to see his mittens! How awesome! But our day didn’t stop there – a fin whale decided to cruise on by, giving us good looks at it before keeping a steady pace and outrunning us. We headed in and just before we get home…inshore bottlenose dolphins! Inside Quivira Basin! I’ve never seen them that close, to home before and it was awesome!

Today’s tour was equally amazing. We got out to the 9 mile bank. Out boat was able to spot ANOTHER pod of bottlenose dolphins, a huge blue whale, a fin whale and 2 curious minkes! We also came across over 700 common dolphins!

Does this sound amazing to you? Come join us as soon as possible! I have a deal up on travelzoo for our 8 hour tour – ONLY $69!! Check it out: http://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/San-Diego/Other/42412

Our trip started off with a feeding pod of common dolphins right outside mission bay. We had a few bow-riders, a few calves, and cool looks at the feeding behavior. After about an hour, we saw more splashing … more commons? NOPE! A huge pod of offshore bottlenose, bow-riding, jumping, and one even splashd all our customers who were watching at the bow! One young lady had to wring her shirt out! Warning: Our boat is a splash zone!

After about another 45 minutes, our sister ship, the Privateer, called us in on a blue whale! We ran over and eventually saw the blue surface a few times and then, finally, a HUGE show of its flukes! I’ve never seen a blue whale hold their tail that high out of the water. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought he was trying to tail lob! We watched him surface and exhale a few times. Eventually, he turned and came right. at. Our. BOAT! He dove under the boat, only to surface on the other side. Now our guests know why they are called “blue.”

Overall, perfect weather, perfect conditions … with even more amazing conditions expected for this weekend!!

Turns out, it was a blue whale! Yes, another one! We thought we had lost it for a while, since it had gone on a deep dive, but then, it surfaced so to the boat that Capt Steve had to cut the engines and sit idle in the water. This blue whale hung around with us for a bit and finally, did a HUGE dive, showing us its flukes!!!! The flukes of a blue whale can be wider than our boat, so it was truly a sight to see, especially so close to our boat!! I’ve never seen a blue whales flukes that close to our boat before, so it was an awesome experience. Our deckhand/co-naturalist, Melody, was able to snap this fantastic shot of the flukes.

We waited around a bit more and decided to head off and find more whales. And boy, did we find whales!

Tyler and Capt Steve saw another blow off in the distance and headed straight towards it – turns out it was a fin whale! Now, this alone, would’ve made my day – the two largest animals on earth in less than 2 hours! But it didn’t stop there! We kept seeing blows all around us – some too far, some extremely close! It was hard to choose where to go next! We must’ve seen at least 20 different blows all around in our area of visibility on the water.

We approached a closer blow. On the way to investigate, we had a minke whale surface next to the boat, surprising us, and quickly swim away. Turns out the original exhale was another blue whale!!!! With another fin whale close by! With bottlenose dolphins all around the two whales! It was a cetacean party – you didn’t know where to look! We even had a humpback join the party, briefly.

The whales were staying near the surface, taking shallow dives and coming straight back up, to the delight of all on board. Time was running short and we had to head back in, but on the way back, we saw a spout, off the port side, fairly close. The guests on board started cheering Capt Steve’s name and eventually he turned the boat to check it out. Turned out to be a humpback!!! And one we’ve seen before, judging by the fluke pattern. It looked like the one I’ve nicknamed Skully.

Overall an amazing day – 2 blue whales, 2 fin whales, a minke whale, 2 humpbacks, pods of common dolphins and a pod of bottlenose! Whoever was our good luck charm, we thank you!!! And to our guests, we especially thank you. Your energy kept us going all day long and kept everyone’s spirits up! You rule!

A few northbound gray whales were spotted and showed us a few flukes. They were on a mission heading north, making sure they got back to the party! A fin whale was spotted as well. These are the second largest animal known to man and one of the fastest animals in the ocean, with the ability to outrun most ocean liners. Fortunately, our whale hung around and entertained our guests with a few HUGE exhales that you could hear. Along the course, we were accompanied by plenty of common dolphins, as they spun and jumped to the joy of everyone aboard!

I believe this week is becoming the week of the Minke Whale. Minkes were spotted, again, feeding on anchovies, right next to the boat! These minkes are usually hard to spot as they run at the first sign on humans, but minkes have been extremely friendly as of late. One of our Facebook friends described them as such: “they are either as elusive as they come (stinky minke) or acting like they want to climb into the boat with you!” Well, these minkes are VERY curious!

Blessing was truly a blessing to have aboard our vessel. Not only is he an amazing young man showing strength and resilience in the face of insurmountable odds, but he also brought us good luck with the whales!

We started off our trip with a great pod of common dolphins, feeding off of Mission Beach, right outside the jetty! This pod stuck around for a few minutes, but their bait fish were more important. We headed out to nine mile bank, to try to find a few whales. On the way, we ran into a nursery pod of common dolphins, including quite a few young babies – some no more than a week old! They stayed with our boat, bow-riding, breaching and splashing around…and then, off in the distance, we spotted a spout! And another! and another!

Three northbound gray whales entertained us by staying up at the surface, showing flukes and generally being a great bunch of whales. We had a few other boats join us, so we left them to do their thing, so we didn’t stress them out too much.

However, just as we left the nine mile bank area, one of the other boats called us back. They came upon two VERY curious minke whales, just checking out boats, showing off, etc. We turned around and went to check them out. Upon approaching the general area, one of the minkes made a sharp turn and came right. at. our. boat! The were at the surface, lunging, checking us out with their cute eyes, showing off their minke mittens, etc etc. I can’t believe how close they were! We had shut off our engines entirely and were drifting and they stayed with us, looking at us, swimming under our boat, around our boat and at our boat.

I’ve been whale watching since I was eight years old – nearly 20 years now – and have NEVER, in my life, seen a minke whale this close. I had tears of joy in my eyes. Mark, our owner, was as excited as a kid at Christmas! I don’t think anyone was disappointed. Overall, a perfect day with an amazing group of people who were so thankful for life and the experience they had witnessed! I could not imagine anything better!

Our Special guest, Blessing, with Minkes surfacing off the bow

This past weekend, we also saw minke whales! Minkes are notoriously shy and hard to capture, but a pair of curious minkes approached our boat, giving us great looks at what we call the “minke mittens!” These are the white bands of coloring on their fins that looks a lot like a pair of mittens. It’s hard to capture, as these guys like to keep their distance, but our minkes just popped on up and almost seemed to wave at us from underwater! We were extremely fortunate to witness this. Minke whales have adopted the name “Stinky Minkes” in the whale watch community, due to their general shyness. I, personally, think they are anything BUT stinky and are too cute!

We headed back to shore and spotted a large mola mola – or ocean sunfish – just cruising around. These fish are really big and really cool looking so it was a nice treat for our guests, whose sunny personalities helped keep this foggy day nice and bright!

We got back to the dock and, of course, our sea lions and local bird species were there to greet us! This weekend is shaping up to be an awesome weekend. There are still some spots left for our eight hour tomorrow morning as well as some spots for our 4.5 hour on Sunday! Check it out!

Despite foggy and overcast conditions, the seas were incredibly calm, enabling our crew to spot a pair of fin whales right off the coast! These are the second largest whale and are roughly the size of our boat — or bigger!! They can go incredibly fast, so it’s a bit tougher to spot them, as they can go faster than most ocean liners.

We were also able to spot quite a few common dolphins scattered around. An amazing group of customers helped keep this overcast day bright and cheery!

On the way out, the Eclipse was escorted by scattered groups of common dolphins. Upon getting to the northeast corner of the 9 mile bank, a group of 4 northbound gray whale decided to show up! No flukes, but amazing animals, entertaining our guests with great looks at them!

The Eclipse stumbled upon a pod of 500 dolphins shortly thereafter, and these dolphins couldn’t get enough of the boat! Bow-riding, porpoising, breaching … amazing! But, as we always say, the trip isn’t over until we dock! As we entered the jettys, we were greeted by our local pod of inshore bottlenose dolphins. These guys are always around and we love seeing them after a nice day on the sea.

All-in-all, a wonderful last couple of days, especially after that storm this weekend! With all this wildlife, I feel like a kid in a candy store – there’s so much to see!