At The Backroads

San Diego Bay from Hornblower Cruise, Thursday, Jan 8 2009

Last Thursday was my birthday, and since I am still on vacation, I told myself I will give myself a birthday treat by hopping in a boat to the middle of the sea and celebrate birthday with the wildlife in the ocean . I bought my whale watching ticket through Goldstar, which is only a total of $19.50 compared to $30.00 regular price. However, when Thursday came, it was overcast! I was thinking of not going anymore since I won’t be able to take good pictures because of poor visibility. But then, as I already had promised myself to enjoy that day no matter what and that was how I wanted to enjoy the day, I jumped in the whale watching cruise still. And here was my birthday party :))

My Birthday Guests ( hahahaha, I’d like to think that way, poor me )

Greeter Number 1

Greeter Number 2

Greeter Number 3 and 4

Greeter Number 5 and 6

Actually, there were still a lot of other greeters, however, the pictures did not come out good at all with all the haze from the marine layer. Sometimes, we got lucky to be on a fogless spot, maybe like this one where we can see clearly the Hotel del Coronado

Hotel Del Coronado and Coronado Bridge

But a lot of the times, it was like this

Abandoned Deck, @ 3 pm in the afternoon

It is not that there were not other people on the boat, there were a lot! At first, the tour started with almost everyone outside, having a merry time, then, with the very chilly breeze blowing, despite having warm jackets, after an hour, slowly the people were moving inside seeking the comfort of an indoor seating! But it was fun, despite the gloomy weather. I had fun watching the dolphins watch the whales. it is easier to look for the whales since usually the dolphins would come circling around them.

Dolphin and Whale

Though the picture may look like it is the whale following the dolphin, but actually, the dolphins were kind of moving around the whale and when I caught this picture, the dolphin was in front of the whale. Dolphins are very curious and intelligent marine mammals, they love to observe what is going around the whale as much as men study the behavior of the whales too. In fact, some dolphins and sea lions are trained by the US Navy for military intelligence. If we have police dogs on land, we have the the navy sea lions and dolphins in water. We also saw the military carrier which shoot down the defective spy satellite last year to prevent it from hitting the populated part of the Earth.

Military Carrier that Shoot Down the Defective Spy Satellite

Whale watching is not only fun but also educational, I think it’s not only the kids who light up with excitement when they see jumping whales and dolphins, but adults too. How many whales do you think are in this picture? Is this only one whale or two?

Gray whales are most frequently seen off San Diego from December to March as they trek from the frigid arctic waters to the warm water lagoons of Baja, California, where females give birth to their calves. Each year, about 26,000 whales would make the 10,000 mile journey from Arctic to Baja and back.

Gray Whale’s Tail

From the gray whale, bye for now

Gray Whale’s Tail

Until the next post, hope you enjoyed this gloomy whale watching trip. Though a gloomy day, but I had a happy birthday

Gray Whale, San Diego Coast

Let me stray away from hiking in this post, and share one of the popular activities here in San Diego during the migration season of gray whales, which is December – March, but I think the best time is January- February. As I had mentioned previously in my Hiking and Tidepooling at Cabrillo National Monument Post , gray whale pass this side of the West Coast every winter. After spending their summer in the food-rich water of the Arctic, the gray whales swim South along the coast to the bays of Baja, California, Mexico, where they mate and nurse their young. Of course, experiencing these whales in the Arctic (Alaska) or in Baja, California (Mexico) would be a lot better, but for now, while those places are still in my wish list to visit someday, I just content myself first with what San Diego has .

San Diego from the Coast

Though we can spot gray whales from afar on top of the bluffs at Cabrillo National Monument and at Torrey Pines , but whale watching on board a yacht is different since we get a chance to be really closer to the whales and also get a glimpse of what else San Diego has from the coast.

San Diego Bay and Snow Capped Mountain

There are a lot of local operators which service the whale watching cruise. The prices range from $25 to $40 for a 3.5 hour boat ride. However, we only paid a total of $17.00 since we purchased our tickets from Goldstar ( http://www.goldstar.com/ ), through them, we boarded the Hornblower Cruise . We paid even cheaper than the senior citizen and children. We have been using Goldstar in purchasing cheap tickets for San Diego and other Southern California events like watching Cirque du Solei shows, theater plays and concerts at a much discounted price. I am not paid by Goldstar at all in this post but just sharing this opportunity to save some money for recreation. Membership in Goldstar is free, we do not actually only use Goldstar for getting cheaper tickets, but also as our alert in finding what is going on in San Diego and Southern California.

Military Ship and the San Diego Bay

When we left the San Diego Bay on board the Hornblower Cruise, we started to see more military ships. We can usually see these military ships from the shore, but again, not that very up close. Here are some more pictures we took as we cruised along the bay going out to the Pacific Ocean:  

San Diego Bay and Snow Capped Mountain,

gulls following our yacht,

pelicans,

and more of them.

Other wildlife putting in some appearances were:

Pacific White Sided Dolphin

Sea Lions

And the main draw of the tour, otherwise we would have to hop in the cruise again for free if we did not see any, the gray whale.

Gray Whale

Now, at this time of the year, there is no more whale watching tour here in San Diego, instead a 1 hr or 2 hr cruise tour of the San Diego Bay and Coast. Most likely, you would still see the same wildlife, except for the gray whales. The gray whales are now back in the Arctic, and I could only dream I am in Alaska seeing more wildlife there. A closer alternative for San Diegans to go whale watching in the summer is at Long Beach and Oxnard where the blue and humpback whales are common in the summer.