April 10 2017

Absolutely amazing start to our week! We had a lovely crowd on board the Sur Randy for both trips today. In the morning, the 10am whale watch trip saw 7 Gray Whales, 1 Humpback Whale, 3 Dall’s Porpoise, 1 Laysan Albatross and 1 Black-footed Albatross! The gray whales are heading north through Monterey Bay on their way to the feeding grounds in Alaska. We sighted in them in small groups of two or 3 whales as they traveled, some of them showing their tail flukes. We sighted the same humpback whale twice throughout the trip and we got to see its tail flukes several times. The Dall’s Porpoise were quite elusive, only giving us a passing glance before we were given a fly-by from a black-footed albatross AND a laysan albatross! Both of these impressive birds fly from the Northwest Hawaiian islands to forage off our coast. It’s pretty rare to see a laysan albatross, so the crew was quite excited.

In the afternoon, the 1:30pm whale watch saw 7 Humpbacks, some of which were quite active! One whale did several head lunges or chin slaps and it moved across the area, one time breaching really close to the boat! A few other humpback whales seemed to join in the fun too and we wind picked up on the bay. It’s a very impressive sight when a 40 ton whale comes flying out of the water!