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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>1 Minke<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>5 Blues<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>1000 Common Dolphins<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Even if you NEVER read the text, YOU
GOTTA READ THIS!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Today was the most amazing blue whale
day ever. Even Capt. Dave said he had never seen anything like today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Our 1<sup>st</sup> encounter was a Minke
that surfaced about 4-5 times and was as good as an elusive Minke sighting can
get.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Next we came upon a megapod of Common
Dolphins and this was not your ordinary megapod. These were major acrobats.
They were jumping all over and not just your standard porpoising but 10-12-15
feet into the air or even higher like they were catching a fish at a Sea World
show. I got a picture of a dolphin that was completely horizontal to the water
- probably 10 feet above the surface. They were jumping everywhere; 3 here; 5
there; all in unison; everywhere you look was jumping and flying dolphins. Some
were even jumping straight up in the air and spinning like a Spinner Dolphins all
in an amazing circus act.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Then I saw the first blow of the day as
we were headed toward SRI and it was a monster blow, even at quite a distance.
Capt. Dave turned the boat to go back toward SCI where we saw the blow and we
saw a 2<sup>nd</sup> huge blow and realized there were 2 monster blue whales in
the area. We hung out with these 2 whales for about 20 minutes until I saw a
huge splash in the distance that looked like the size of 3 breaching whales at
the same time. It was the biggest splash I have ever seen. We left the pair of
blues we were watching to investigate the giant splash. When we got to that
area, we were witnessing what can only be described as racing behavior. There
were initially 2 blue whales that were racing, lunging and rolling which created
a huge amount of splashing. They were chasing each other and lunging forward with
1/3 of their body out of the water. This created huge splashes with water
flying everywhere. Then a 3<sup>rd</sup> whale showed up and the behavior
intensified even more. I got some pictures with 3 whales all at the surface
lunging and rolling around. After watching the show for a while, 2 of them
raced directly to the boat. They were headed straight for us like a guided
missile and the lead whale’s dorsal fin surfaced immediately in front of
the boat and then the head surfaced less than 20 feet from the starboard side
of the boat. The 26 passengers from around the world including Ireland, Czech
Republic, OK, NJ, TX and the LA area were all truly stunned at this spectacular
display of nature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>After waking up to fog where we could
not see the fence in our back yard we were very grateful for the relatively
clear sys once we got about 2 miles off shore and the day was definitely one of
the best whale watching days ever!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%'>My wife Toni
and Carol Celic were along for the ride with Captain Dave, Dennis and Amanda.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%'>Kevin Bailey,
PID<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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