SCDCIE Family Whale Watching Cruise

By Jody Thompson

It was a beautiful day… sunny clear and lots of talk at the dock about Pacific gray whale sightings all week. Although skeptical for this late in the season it was uplifting to hear the stories.

Elissa and I picked up our mothers Louise and Billie earlier that morning and now were standing in line on dock #2 to purchase our discounted club event tickets… when to our pleasant surprise up came Steve and Christine Brashers with their friends Keith and Diane. Shortly there after Norm Corlew and his son Matthew also showed up.

Okay it was a small club turnout but we were serious about finding some whales! We left Long Beach promptly and headed north along the coast past San Pedro and ultimately into the channel beyond the Palos Verde Peninsula. Unfortunately no whales!

As we turned around to head back, word came over the radio of a pair of gray whales being sighted by another whale watching boat south of us. Things were looking up. As we returned we ran into a small pod of dolphin which playfully followed and surrounded the boat… but it was whales we wanted and whales we would get.

Just off of San Pedro we encountered the pair obviously trying to avoid the multiple boats following them. They zigged and zagged back and forth and then finally surfaced for all to view. Although the sightings were brief, we all were relived that our trip had officially been converted from a whale searching trip to a whale watching trip!

As we returned to Long Beach many of us reflected on the experience and concluded that while worth the trip we wanted to see more. That’s the essence of diving… we are never satisfied and we always have to do it again.

By the way our non diving mom’s loved it… and that too is what the trip was all about! Until next time…