9:00am- A dismal report from Captain Larry on the Ocean Explorer greeted us as we left he harbor at 9:00am: he had seen nothing on his early morning whale watching trip. So Capt. Ryan went to look in the only place not yet covered: Laguna Beach. And it was there we found a great pod of about 200 short beaked common dolphin! These fun animals were jumping and bow riding; a great show for us to enjoy. Later in the trip we heard the boats from Dana Point had a pod of 50 Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin, so we headed that way and got the opportunity to view those special animals. In the pod was the famous “patches”- a piebald dolphin that has been seen in our waters for at least 10 years. This was our first time ever seeing this animal on Newport Coastal Adventure. Captain Ryan made sure he got some good pictures!
11:30am- Returning out to see for our text trip we were greeted with some building wind waves, making it difficult to spot animals. Captain Ryan got a call from the Dana Point fleet about the same pod of 50 Bottlenose now 13 miles from Newport, but we went to see them anyways! A great show with lots more jumping and playful antics from this morning. Captain Taylor on the other Zodiac didn’t make it down to see the Bottlenose, but he found his own pod of 200 common dolphin just the same. No 3:00pm trip today because of the wind, and no whales, but we were very pleased with our dolphin encounters.