9:00am- Yesterday marked 27 days in a row that we had seen humpback whales; the challenge was on to make it another day with whales! Capt Ryan and Capt Taylor first headed out to a great pod of dolphin 5 miles off the coast that was discovered by Capt. John on the Newport Legacy. There was at least 300 common dolphin feeding and being very playful with the boat. After 20 minutes of fun with these guys, Ryan and Taylor split up to try and find a whale. Ryan went to the same spot we last saw a humpback yesterday, about 6 miles west of Newport Beach. It was there he found some great signs, 200 more common dolphin, and tons of birds. Then, a passenger said “I saw a spout!” Sure enough, a humpback whale was on its way over to feed with the dolphin. Actually, two humpback whales! We shared our discovery with three other whale watching boats.
11:30am- Our two Zodiacs made quick turn arounds at the dock so we could go back out and be with the humpbacks. By the time we arrived again on scene, three humpback whales were now feeding in the area, along with 200 common dolphin. We got even better looks at the whales this trip, and our passengers were “stoked”!
3:00pm- It became windy, and we could not explore the area which previously held the whales on the first two trips. But right out of the harbor Capt Ryan found a pod of about 50 common dolphin, which delighted our passengers. Moving along, we got a report of a nice pod of Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin heading up from Laguna Beach. Captain Taylor located this pod of 30 Bottlenose with his sharp eyes, and they were a delight! These dolphin are twice the size of the common dolphin and not seen very frequently. Even though we did not see a whale this trip, our passengers were very happy to have some awesome dolphin encounters.