Day 13 - Whale Watching

We took the 11 am whale watching trip with Captain Dan McSweeny this morning.  Mom & I went out with Capt. Dan two years ago and enjoyed it, so there was no question which outfit we wanted to go with this time around.  Capt. Dan is a naturalist who has studied whales in Hawaii, Alaska, and Puget Sound form many years.  He knows whales. His boat has a crew of 2 - both women - whom we remembered from 2 years ago, and they all remembered us, too.

We went out quite a ways, but could still see shore.  There is a expansive marine shelf north of the airport that has been designated as a humpback sanctuary.  We saw several whales off on the horizon, spouting, and splashing, but the ones we saw closer in, just spouted and showed their backs.  Some were quite close to the boat, but they weren't interested showing their tails or breaching.  Two years ago we saw two whales breaching and it was very exciting.  Closer to shore we saw some other whales that were more willing to show their tails.  We also saw a large group of spinner dolphins.  They are only about 100 pounds and are the only marine mammal that actually jumps out of the water and spins on its axis - 7 1/2 rotations.

We were on the boat for about 3 hours and the service was quite good with juice and snacks served.  There were some pretty big swells out in the ocean and we wallowed a little bit when the boat was stopped, but thankfully Mom provided us with meclazine, so we weren't worried about mal du mer.

Since it was 2:00 when we got back on shore and late for lunch, we shared a pizza at Costco and picked up some necessities - sure are going through the rum and pineapple...
Then a quick stop at the market for papayas before heading for the condo.