Wed Aug 30 – Whale Watching

Bookended by dolphins and scintillated by a sunset!

Although passengers boarded the Viking Starship in the rain yesterday, the sun came out as soon as we set sail and stayed dry for the remainder of the trip. We began, almost immediately, with a group of inshore bottlenose dolphins, which were feeding on small patches of prey beneath the surface, before heading off in search of whales to our southwest. We searched in vain for a while, before coming upon an unusually small and inquisitive pod of short-beaked common dolphins which charged toward the vessel and remained with us for several minutes darting around and under the bow, affording great, up-close views of themselves. We eventually left these enigmatic animals to continue our search, finally coming upon a small humpback whale. The whale was spending time feeding just under the surface, completing shallow non-fluking dives to reach the bait detected just below the surface. We spent time with the young whale that eventually, revealed its somewhat hazy pigmented flukes on a deeper, high fluking dive at the end of our time together. As we traveled back to port, we were surprised by another group of bottlenose dolphins, which surfed and leaped in the accompanying swells. The dolphins, clearly having fun, nearly surrounded and played around the vessel. We continued home, coming upon additional small groups of bottlenose dolphins, and enjoying a spectacular summer sunset as we headed into port. Days like this are not meant to last, and only four trips remain in our season. We hope you can join us before it ends!