San Francisco, CA –
“The whale watching is great this summer!”
“We guarantee you’ll see a whale.”
Nope, not happening…
That’s the risk you take when you try to see any type of wildlife. They may not show. Yes, the cruise company that we went with had a guarantee that we would see some whales, and the whale watching this summer has supposedly been fantastic, but it’s still a complete crap shoot.
When you are wanting to view some types of wildlife, there are steps that you can take to improve your chances. When we visited the hummingbird sanctuary in Mindo, Ecuador, we stood a good chance of getting to see several hummingbirds. The owners had set up numerous hummingbird feeders around a large deck where the viewers could gather without disturbing the birds.
Another approach would be to go somewhere with a high likelihood that you’ll get a chance to see some wildlife. For instance, on our trip to Yellowstone in the spring, before the heavy tourist season, we knew that we stood a good chance to see a lot of bison and caribou, which we did. What wasn’t so likely was that we would see any grizzlies or wolves, much less both fighting over a kill, but we got lucky and saw quite a show (too bad I didn’t have a long enough lens to get any decent shots). However, we did hope to see more than the one, lone moose that we saw in a river, outside the park.
So we had high hopes when we set out early the morning of our whale watching cruise. We’d heard many reports of how the watching was much better than normal this summer. There had been warnings to all of the large ships to slow down and keep watch while in the shipping lanes, as the krill blooms were going strong.
On our way out of the bay, the captain detoured to get some gas, and we saw several sea lions on one of the docks. Once out of the bay, the captain kept close to the beach so that we could see several seals lying on a collection of rocks. We even saw brief glances of bay dolphins as their dorsal fins broke the surface only to quickly disappear below the waves.
So, what did we get to see once we got out to the prime watching spots? One blow very far in the distance, and only because I quickly turned to look the moment someone yelled that they had spotted one. That was it. Five hours on the water, and only one distant blow.
So much for the guarantee. The captain offered everyone another trip on another day for half-price, but that would require that we have the day available, and that they would have space on the boat.
C’est la vie…
For more photos of water, sea birds, and other sights from the water level, in and out of the San Francisco Bay, click here.
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