October 2nd, 2022
The autopilot didn’t give out on us last night and I finally got some sleep. A slight headache I had been putting up with went away. As the day came to life, so did the ocean. I was down below making Poke for breakfast when I got the message that Jared, our onboard cetology expert, had an Orca (Killer Whale) sighting! This just after we had discussed that we were probably too far out to see much life at all… we were in for a surprise.
The request was made to alter course to see these whales. We spent about 30 minutes following the pod of 3 orca. The group consisted of an adult female, a large adult male and two juveniles. Jared was able to get photographs which he will use for individual identification. Finally, three of them grouped together in side-by-side formation, turned straight for us and swam right by our stern… We waved our caps goodbye, and all parties went their separate ways, we continued to the South and our black and white friends continued Northwest.
Shortly after this encounter and after a bowl of fresh Poke, another massive pod of Common Dolphin came to visit….
In the middle of writing this I had to stop to pull in a Rainbow Runner (aka Hawaiian Salmon). Once we landed the fish, I was informed we had a Fin whale nearby. We observed the Fin whale and then returned to our course and speed. I cleaned the fish and got it into the fridge. What a welcome back to warmer waters and back to the ocean!
Looks like a beautiful ocean Here are some pix I took on a return to San Diego from Hawaii a few years ago.