[Fun]
When I woke up this morning, I regretted a little extending my stay - starting to miss my cat & familiar surroundings a little, and not sure what I'd do after the whale-watching trip. But now I'm glad I stayed - hurrying to the Winchester Mystery House & home this afternoon would have been very anticlimactic.
I walked down to the wharf a little after 8 a.m., arriving at 8:30 or so to check in for the whale-watching trip. We took the 60-foot Sea Wolf II out, which is the same ship I took in 2007. It has a small cabin with lots of seating on the fore & aft, plus along the sides. Along with a captain & mate, the ship carries a marine biologist who acts as kind of a tour guide, talking about the bay & various birds & animals we encounter.
The trip out of the bay was pretty cold. I'd dressed warmly, but still wished I'd brought another coat & some gloves. Especially the gloves. I stayed in the back of the boat, where it's more stable, so I didn't have any seasickness problems, but a couple of teenagers on board were pretty ill the whole trip. For the first hour or so, we wandered around looking for whales. The fog limited visibility, and we just weren't having any luck, other than few albatrosses and other seabirds.
Finally we spotted some Dall's porpoises. Some of them rode the bow wave for awhile, while others tagged alongside the ship. They have black & white patches, just like orcas, but for the opposite reason - orcas use their shading as camouflage while hunting; porpoises use their's to hide from the orcas. Then we caught up to some Risso's dolphins. They're more indifferent to boats than porpoises, so they just kept on their way, not paying us much attention.
Then we found two humpback whales, then two more that came up right next to the ship. That's where I got a lot of my better whale photos, including the almost-perfect whale tail shot that's slightly out of frame. Urgh. Unfortunately, between the pitching of the boat & the slow 'shutter' speed of my digital camera, I got a lot of shots of water where there had just been a whale or dolphin.
We took off after another pod of Risso's dolphins. These were a lot more friendly, coming alongside the boat and riding the bow wave, which the marine biologist said dolphins almost never do. Then we headed back to the whales and discovered a new group of three feeding with a bunch of sea lion hangers-on. The sea lions were diving right after the whales, hoping to snatch up some fish roiled up by the dive of the whales, who of course can go much deeper than sea lions.
Then it was time to head back into harbor. It had been overcast with fog and patches of sunlight out on the ocean, but it was sunny in the harbor. First we passed some juvenile sea lions hanging out on a buoy. Then to our surprise we came across the rest of the dolphins, inside the harbor. Some kayakers were in the middle of one big bunch, while another surrounded a sailboat heading out.
After disembarking, I had lunch at Cafe Fina on Old Fisherman's Wharf - fish & chips, very good. I walked around the wharf a little more, then checked my map & headed across the plaza to check out the old whaling station, which I'd only seen at night on the Ghost Trolley tour in 2007. Mostly I was interested in getting a photo of the whalebone sidewalk in front of the restored station - they killed so many whales, they didn't know what to do with them all, so they started using the bones as construction materials!
I walked back to my hotel, uploaded & edited the photos - cutting 90-something shots down to 21 - then went & sat on the beach for awhile, since I hadn't done that yet. I caught the free trolley down to Cannery Row, fulfilling my final goal for this visit, and had dinner. Unfortunately, it was only OK. Then I walked back since the trolleys stop at 7 p.m., took a very short nap, and then wrote up this entry. I'll go to bed soon, I think, I'm pretty tired out. Tomorrow, checkout & Winchester Mystery House on the way home.
I walked down to the wharf a little after 8 a.m., arriving at 8:30 or so to check in for the whale-watching trip. We took the 60-foot Sea Wolf II out, which is the same ship I took in 2007. It has a small cabin with lots of seating on the fore & aft, plus along the sides. Along with a captain & mate, the ship carries a marine biologist who acts as kind of a tour guide, talking about the bay & various birds & animals we encounter.
The trip out of the bay was pretty cold. I'd dressed warmly, but still wished I'd brought another coat & some gloves. Especially the gloves. I stayed in the back of the boat, where it's more stable, so I didn't have any seasickness problems, but a couple of teenagers on board were pretty ill the whole trip. For the first hour or so, we wandered around looking for whales. The fog limited visibility, and we just weren't having any luck, other than few albatrosses and other seabirds.
Finally we spotted some Dall's porpoises. Some of them rode the bow wave for awhile, while others tagged alongside the ship. They have black & white patches, just like orcas, but for the opposite reason - orcas use their shading as camouflage while hunting; porpoises use their's to hide from the orcas. Then we caught up to some Risso's dolphins. They're more indifferent to boats than porpoises, so they just kept on their way, not paying us much attention.
Then we found two humpback whales, then two more that came up right next to the ship. That's where I got a lot of my better whale photos, including the almost-perfect whale tail shot that's slightly out of frame. Urgh. Unfortunately, between the pitching of the boat & the slow 'shutter' speed of my digital camera, I got a lot of shots of water where there had just been a whale or dolphin.
We took off after another pod of Risso's dolphins. These were a lot more friendly, coming alongside the boat and riding the bow wave, which the marine biologist said dolphins almost never do. Then we headed back to the whales and discovered a new group of three feeding with a bunch of sea lion hangers-on. The sea lions were diving right after the whales, hoping to snatch up some fish roiled up by the dive of the whales, who of course can go much deeper than sea lions.
Then it was time to head back into harbor. It had been overcast with fog and patches of sunlight out on the ocean, but it was sunny in the harbor. First we passed some juvenile sea lions hanging out on a buoy. Then to our surprise we came across the rest of the dolphins, inside the harbor. Some kayakers were in the middle of one big bunch, while another surrounded a sailboat heading out.
After disembarking, I had lunch at Cafe Fina on Old Fisherman's Wharf - fish & chips, very good. I walked around the wharf a little more, then checked my map & headed across the plaza to check out the old whaling station, which I'd only seen at night on the Ghost Trolley tour in 2007. Mostly I was interested in getting a photo of the whalebone sidewalk in front of the restored station - they killed so many whales, they didn't know what to do with them all, so they started using the bones as construction materials!
I walked back to my hotel, uploaded & edited the photos - cutting 90-something shots down to 21 - then went & sat on the beach for awhile, since I hadn't done that yet. I caught the free trolley down to Cannery Row, fulfilling my final goal for this visit, and had dinner. Unfortunately, it was only OK. Then I walked back since the trolleys stop at 7 p.m., took a very short nap, and then wrote up this entry. I'll go to bed soon, I think, I'm pretty tired out. Tomorrow, checkout & Winchester Mystery House on the way home.