Blue Whales in Redondo Beach

[mo2vation]

I forgot to share this with the BWE community. My buddy and I are on here all the time - nearly every day. Mostly lurking, always learning and always super appreciative of you guys, your mad skills and the way you share your tricks and tips with all.

On Friday 9/17 I was leaving town for the weekend. On the way out, Claudette and I hooked up in the morning to take the kayaks out and paddle with the Blue Whales that were hanging out in the South Bay. They’d already been there for a week, so we were hoping they’d still be around when we got there.

I wanted to take out a camera with a long lens, not just a point and shoot. I currently shoot Nikon D200’s for my underwater rigs – so I pulled one of the D200 bodies and attached my Nikon 18-200 VR lens, with a circular polarizing filter. I put it into a small, clear dry bag, rolled down the top, put that into a medium clear dry bag, rolled down the top and clipped it into the tank well.

We put the boats in at the hand launch at King Harbor – right near Vets park. We dropped the boats in and then pushed them out of the harbor, past the sea lion buoy and out to the horizon.

Once we started to see Whales I took the camera out of the dry bags, clipped off the small bag behind me and put the medium bag between my knees on the deck to sort of use it as a waterproof holster / sheath / shield to keep as much salt water off the camera and lens as possible between shots. After missing many shots the first 25 minutes out there, I finally got the rhythm of the whales and this crotch-mounted quick draw started working pretty well. My cam and lens were pretty salty when I got back, but they’re both still working.



As we got out past the first nav stick we weren’t alone – there was a veritable armada of boats and crafts out there with us. Kayaks, stand up paddle boards, sail boats, power boats, skiffs and basically anything that would float.



On our way out we encountered this raft of whale watchers. We hung out for a bit, heard some exhalations and saw a spout or two, but it was getting crowded, so Claudette and I decided to push out further. So we pointed the boats again to the horizon and dug in.

The weather could not have been any nicer. Very glassy sea, just a small breeze when there was any wind at all, and very mild swell inside. Here’s a shot of Claudette on the way out. She likes red.



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It wasn't long until we started seeing whales. This is the first pair of whales we spotted one we left the flotilla. That’s Rocky Point in the background, all the way at the end of Palos Verdes. These two whales in the pic were not the big guys. These were really, really huge – but they weren’t the giants that were awaiting on the outside.



Blowing past Rocky Point we continued out into the open ocean where the giants were. We heard some exhalations and saw some spouts way out there that dwarfed the ones on the inside. As we slipped out, we left behind the stand-up paddlers and even the small sail boats. Here, Chica is paddling towards an area she thinks one of the big boys will come up.



She nailed it! One of the giants comes up right near her boat, as she’s rising and falling in the swell outside the protection of the point and the harbor.

The whale takes a breath and Claudette takes her paddle out of the water – holding it high as a sign of respect. With a couple of powerful strokes of his massive pectoral fins he drops his head, and his body follows – until all that’s left is a waving fluke and a huge oily footprint on the water almost twice the length of her boat.














Part two below: The way back home!