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<p class=MsoNormal>2 Gray whales – 1 with breaching and lots of tail
flukes<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>1 rescue at sea<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>1500 Commons on AM trip<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>500 Commons on PM trip<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Our morning whale watch trip with Island Packers was quite
rough and windy. All the whales were hidden in the white choppy waves. Both
trips were out to the AI / SCI pass and around the back side, looking at the
arch, then home. We saw 1500 commons on the AM trip and that was the highlight.
It was a very small crowd of less than 10 people. The most interesting part of
the AM trip was our rescue at sea. A distressed boater on a small 35’
motor boat was sending out distress calls but the real story is that the boat
was just fine; they were new boaters who were panic stricken with the rough
seas. Capt. Jimmy came to the rescue east of Scorpion Harbor and told them to
follow us to the buoy in Scorpion Harbor where it took Jimmy quite an effort to
get them to tie up their boat. Soon thereafter the Coast Guard arrived and we
continued our journey home.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>For the afternoon trip, the wind died down dramatically and
there were no white caps all the way around Anacapa. When we turned around the
backside of AI we saw our 1<sup>st</sup> gray whale and then after 15 minutes
of waiting, we never saw it again. By then we had another whale come up from behind
that checked us out by breaching three times to see what was up ahead of it. It
was quite the show-off whale with breaching and several tail flukes. I
think it had a bit of humpback blood. We watched this Gray whale for an hour
and saw tail flukes at least a dozen times. All of the 70 passengers were
thrilled with their New Year’s outing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Happy New Year.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Kevin and Toni Bailey<o:p></o:p></p>
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