How do you follow up an epic experience such as cage diving in crystal clear water with earth's most charismatic apex predator - the great white shark? We took a long shot and joined a local whale watch operator in San Diego to try for one more "life" experience before we headed back home. Our goal was to find the largest animal ever to inhabit the earth in the wild - the elusive and endangered Blue Whale! A sighting would be a first for us and we knew the odds were not in our favor.
Our craft was perfect for the task - a surplus Navy Seal inflatable that could seat 6 comfortably and make about 30 knots in calm seas. A bit slower in choppy seas and you better be prepared to hang on for a bumpy ride. September is not a typical month for Blue whale sightings which are still considered fortunate and rare anywhere in the world since whaling in the modern era has reduced their numbers to a fraction of their historic population. But our amazing luck was with us as about 20 miles offshore (now back in Mexican waters) we came across a gathering of 25 blue whales feeding on the surface over a 2 square mile area. Watching these beasts glide across the surface (several of them were 100 feet long!) was breathtaking. Our naturalist on board said he had not seen so many Blue Whales together in one area in his five years of guiding there. Another incredible experience. WOW! Take a look!