Well, 10 PPers showed up at Nick’s and were ready to go before the 10 am OTW as usual. We weren’t the only ones as Scott Derryberry had a group as did my old paddling buddies celebrating Jayah’s BD.
Off we headed towards the mouth enjoying the overcast, windless conditions. We thought we spotted some mist or maybe a flock of shorebirds but soon enough we saw the ummistakable spout of a whale. Scott’s group were closer than we were but soon we had all converged in the area near Tom’s point. We all drifted along as this young Grey Whale swam leisurely along. We were off to the side of its path and hadn’t seen it for awhile when it surfaced about 15ft in front of Scott’s boat. Much excitement and arm waving ensued. Then our curious buddy decided to check out all the yakkers and did a big old spyhop right in front of us. Satisfied that we were friendly he proceeded with his business.
We paddled out to Avila’s for lunch and a beach hike. We keep looking for our whale but he never came out to the mouth. After a nice lunch and beach walk we headed back knowing the whale in the bay somewhere. Sure enough, right near Tom’s Point, he was swimming around as before. We spent some more quality time in his vicinity until he finally started heading towards the mouth.
We finished up our paddle and loaded the boats and debriefed about our close encounter of the Grey Whale kind.
Ray
Paddlers in Tomales Bay were treated to viewing a whale yesterday. I just posted my first attempt at a video of the whale.
I will try uploading in higher quality when I have a little time. Overall it’s a bit shaky, but for a point and shoot – that’s about as good as I can get from a kayak.
Dick M.
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