Two for One

Friday we went on Captain Dave's Whale and Dolphin watching tour.  What a beautiful sunny day to be out on the ocean.  We boarded the Manute'a at 10:30 and were off by 10:45.  We barely got out of the harbor when the captain pointed out the sea loins on the harbor rock barrier.  There were so many of them and it was quite funny some of the positions they were laying in.

Bottle nose dolphin

Gray Whale and baby

Gray Whale and baby

Soon after a female gray whale with a baby was spotted along with bottle nose dolphins.  They are so big and cumbersome looking.  This was very rare to see them this close to the harbor, you almost never see them interact with the dolphins.  There were three bottle nose dolphins that appeared to be leading them out to the ocean away from the harbor wall.  We watched them for quite awhile before heading further out to see what else was out there.  The whales are hard to see, they are the dark gray bumps in the water.

We went out further and saw another female gray whale with a baby.  They didn't show themselves very much so I didn't get a picture.  Later the captain spotted a Minke (or stinky) whale.  They are small and have
a very bad odor, hence the nick name of stinky.  I wasn't able to get a good picture of this one either. :0(
But here is one from their web site.

  

Me standing on the front of the catamaran, which is the type of boat we were on.
As we were coming back into the harbor we saw this great old ship heading to Catalina.  It is called the Spirit of Dana Point.





 What a fun day this was.  The weather couldn't of been better and we were able to see several whales and dolphins what more could you want.