Day 11: Moby Dick

West Ham were playing at Arsenal today and I thought about making plans to watch the game in a Downtown sports bar, however I realised it was an early kick off and with the time difference calculated the start would actually be 5:00 am! I doubt even the hardest core sports bar would be open for a sad Limey to watch "soccer" at that time, so I resorted to the Talk sports commentary on the Internet instead - and we won 2 - 0 so it was worth it!

Later in the morning the  excitement got even greater because we took to the high seas, Monterey Bay and beyond actually, in search of whales and other assorted marine wildlife. We went whale watching from Fishermen's pier. When we boarded I asked the deck hand to call me Ishmael, and he asked me to leave my harpoon on the quay side, apparently they're frowned upon...

I recently mentioned James Dean crashing his car near San Luis Abispo, well yesterday I discovered through reading a guide book that John Denver was killed when he crashed his plane into this Bay in 1997... This trip is getting spooky.

John Denver - Leaving on a jet plane...

The weather for the voyage was how it has been for the last few days, warm but overcast, Jan was anxious about the waves, but her sea legs proved more than a match for the heavy swell. We steamed several miles out into the bay to where there were loads of sea birds - "sooty shearwaters" (honest), and this apparently is a real sign of whale activity. Sure enough hump back whales were soon "breaching" on both sides of the boat! Some just fleetingly, others for several seconds at a times. Marine law doesn't allow the ships to get too near them, (100 metres), and they are very difficult to photograph, so I have found some pics from Google images! But they are humpbacks seen in these waters!

Typical views of what we saw.

The highlight of the voyage was undoubtedly on the return leg, we came across a school of over hundred dolphins, "Long beaked commons" to be precise, (look it up Mike). They stayed with the boat for about 20 minutes, diving and leaping alongside, encouraging "oohs" and "aarghs" from the passengers - well at least those passengers who weren't being ill! Another video link - https://youtu.be/FNWTNCCHUVk 

The rest of the day has been very lazy; eating crepes, exploring supermarkets, (they're so big!), listening to "Adult Orientated Rock" on the car radio, (Aerosmith, Bob Seeger anyone?), and quaffing coffee.

"The man from Del Monte, he says...!"