We Saw Risso's Dolphins

After sharing lunch in Ventura, we boarded the boat for our Whale Watching cruise.

Several of us had taken motion sickness prevention medicine before the boat ride. Unfortunately, I still felt pretty green behind the gills when the boat was heading out at high speed and hitting the waves hard. Maybe fried fish for lunch wasn't the best idea?
Soon, we saw the Islands.

"Land Ho."

They were beautiful on the horizon.



Then, lo and behold, dolphins.

There were 15 or 20 in the pod.





Everyone headed out onto the side of the ship for a closer look and to take pictures.

I had only seen dolphins in the wild one other time. I'd been with my folks and brother that time too. We were swimming in Galveston the weekend after Amy's wedding. It had been amazing to see them while we were in the water with them.

But seeing them out to sea, from the boat was awesome too.

From the Island Packer's website, we knew the chances of seeing whales were slim. It sounded like we were most likely to see dolphins. We were thrilled. I was doubly happy that they slowed down the boat and my stomach was able to settle down a bit.

They told us these were Risso's dolphins. Our guide said this is the largest number of them he'd seen together at one time. Props to Island Packers for offering such an info filled, enjoyable, affordable experience.

The shot above is a close up of one of the resource books they had on board for us to use.

And here is one of John displaying the props.

More to come...