1000 Whales - The Book Journey Continues

I mentioned in my last blog a month ago that I'd written about finding 1000 whales in one year.

The book is now for sale in multiple formats and locations. You can buy it in print, from me; in a special cover version from the Hornblower Cruises company; or from a friend who has read and tired of it, or online in the iBook store.

I started up a website called 1 K in 1 Yr, or 1kin1yr.com and on that site you can find samples of the book artwork, text pages, and videos.

I guess I'd better give you a nice 1-minute video at this point, as seeing and hearing the whales seems to appeal to most everyone...




In addition to videos, most folks like to see whales jumping out of the water (breaching) like these whales I saw yesterday:

(We don't know exactly why they do this, but the whales seem to enjoy it.)

And people like to see whale flukes or tails:

Can we finish with 3 tails?

One Thousand Whales in One Year

I haven't posted much on this site this year, because I have been busy out on the water. Watching whales. In fact, together with my even-more-fanatical pal Scotty, we've spotted about 1000 whales off the coast of San Diego.

And then I decided to write a book about it. Sigh. There goes my retirement!

Here are some sample pages [click any image to enlarge it]

The first copies are coming off the press this week, and we will see how it goes from there.

Whale watching in San Diego

It's possible to see whales most times of the year near San Diego IF (a big IF) you have a boat with an experienced captain and crew. If you pay to go on a whale watching tour and don't see a whale on any given day, you'll get an invitation to return for a greatly reduced (or free) price. It's usually a nice day out anyway! [click any image to enlarge]

(Note that in this blog I am excluding all "whale in captivity" options such as Sea World. No offense to them, but it's not the same as seeing a whale in the ocean".

We have gone out exploring with the Adventure from Hornblower, the largest and fastest local ship.

 San Diego Whale Watch's Privateer - a whale watching vessel from New England which holds 149

the Eclipse from  Pacific Nature Tours which seats 49

and the catamaran Manute'a from Capt Dave's Dolphin & Whale Safaris, also holding 49

We haven't been on the Flagship's Marietta but they provide trips too.

What we haven't is go out on our own with a lunatic captain that risks himself, his passengers' safety, and the whales. This guy was only 20-30 feet from the 70-foot-long whale when our captain hailed him and warned him off. By agreement we (in a vessel) are to remain 100 yards from the whale, but whales are allowed to come to us.

We've seen whales from land, in San Diego and San Pedro, and we've visited museums. This is at Pt. Vicente, a whale spotting site in Los Angeles.

Whereas this is in San Diego at the old Point Loma Lighthouse National Monument.

And I think we have always seen dolphins. Every single time.

and seagulls, of course.

and always Navy vessels.

In search of the great whales

Greetings, marine mammal fans!

I'll be your captain today as we set off on a voyage of discovery near San Diego.

We'll see plenty of small toothed whales (aka "Dolphins")

Some balleen whales

Pinnepeds (aka sea lions)

Pelecanus Occidentalis (brown pelicans)

and often we see other strange "marine" intruders as well.

Like this weird black sea nettle jellyfish,
the largest invertebrate discovered in the 20th century. It was only classified in 1997!

and these Marines from Camp Pendleton!

Ready? Let's Go! There's plenty of room for you right up at the front ...