WHALE WATCHING

We went with the Ocean Club on a whale watching cruise out of Dana Point. I had just finished reading Richard Dana’s book “Two Years Before the Mast” which described his time in the early 1800s plying the West Coast from San Diego to San Francisco and so I was curious to compare our excursion to his. The same topography is there of course even with the increased population and buildings. We were fortunate to have a beautiful sunny day and calm seas. (I had taken my Bonine just in case anyway.)

There have been many blue whale spotted on the route this summer and we were not denied that pleasure too. They summer in California and winter in Alaska. We saw several, some quite near our boat, Can you imagine, the blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed, even larger than the dinosaurs? They grow to 98 feet long and weigh 200 tons. They are a baleen whale so have no teeth but their mouth is so large that it could hold a Volkswagon bus. Their spout shoots about 39 feet into the air so it easy to spot them. They usually travel about 12 miles per hour and live alone, not in groups like other whales. They usually don’t show their tail (fluke) when they dive so are not as dramatic as the dives of some other whales.

After the exhilaration of watching the whales, we cruised to Newport Beach and Balboa Island for lunch. The captain pointed out several of the wealthy homes that we passed, many of them occupied by movie stars. We had a few minutes after lunch to sightsee but since the shops next to the dock were mostly tourist types, we opted to head back to the boat for our leisurely cruise back home.