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Next Level Sailing Whale Watching Report


Date

Cruise

Report

3/11/24 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Spring break has been a blast so far! We saw a southbound gray whale heading down to Mexico. We can’t wait to spend spring break with you 🙂
3/9/24 5 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions What a day! We saw three gray whales as well as a cow and calf heading north. We can’t wait to see what this month will bring.
Feb&March      Whales! It’s been a busy time of year but we have been seeing whales every trip. Most of the whales have been gray whales, but we have seen a few humpback whales. We are keeping a close eye out for orcas. We can’t wait to have you out!
2/11/24 4 Gray Whales, Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Botlenose Dolphins Another spectacular day! We saw our friendly gray whale in the bay, along with three gray whales out in the ocean that were mating. We also saw two species of dolphins making for a spectacular day at sea.
2/10/24 1 Gray Whale, 3 Humpback Whales, Bottlenose Dolphins What a fantastic day! There was a gray whale in the San Diego Bay that we saw on the way out to sea. We found three humpback whales and we also saw inshore bottlenose dolphins.
2/9/24 Gray Whales! For the last 30 days out on the water, we have been seeing gray whales!
1/31/24 2 Gray Whales, Megapod Commons We had a great pair of gray whales and a fantastic megapod of common dolphins!
1/29/24 3 Gray Whales A beautiful day complete with three gray whales! We are keeping a close eye on the weather for this week.
1/28/24 Gray Whales and Orcas! Guess what? We got to see orcas today! Super exciting to see these gorgeous creatures in San Diego. Be sure to check out our instagram, @nxtlevelsailing for footage.
1/27/24 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions What incredible weather! We are expecting a bit of rain next week, but we are thrilled with the weather this weekend. We got to see two beautiful southbound gray whales.
1/26/24 3 Gray Whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Sea Lions We were lucky enough to see not only three gray whales, but it turned out that they were mating! These animals are making their way down to Mexico, but if the conditions are right, we get to see mating behavior right here in San Diego.
January 2024 Whale Watching Success! Happy New Year! We have had a busy start to the year and we have been seeing lots of gray whales, dolphins, sea lions, and super cool naval activity. We can’t wait to see you out on the water.
12/24/23 Whale Watching Hello everyone! Whale watching will resume on December 26th. The yacht America has been hauled out and she looks incredibly beautiful. Check out the story here. We can’t wait to see you in a few days!
10/17/23 Humpback Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an incredible few weeks. We have seen humpback whales, mega pods of dolphins, and a ton of sea birds. We have also seen sea lions lounging around on the bait barges. It’s always such a pleasure having our guests aboard for a splendid day on the water. Don’t forget to look for military ships and submarines along the way. We will be hauled out for maintenance during November, so be sure to join us now!
10/8/23 3 Humpback Whales, Dolphins, Sea Lions We are starting to get into the height of fall. Grab your pumpkin spice latte and enjoy a beautiful day on the water. Whale watching in October is incredible. We saw three humpback whales today. We can’t wait to see what else we find!
10/2/23 Breaching Humpback, 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions September and October are often referred to as local San Diego summer. It is still warm, but it is not a busy time of year. We were absolutely thrilled to see a breaching humpback today! The sky was sunny and it was simply a gorgeous day. We can’t wait to see what else we will find.
September Minke Whales, Mega pods of Dolphins, Sea Lions This month has been busy for us at Next Level Sailing. We have had some of the most incredible mega pods of dolphins in our San Diego waters. We also have seen minke whales and distant blue whale spouts. We are excited to see what October will bring.
9/2/23 Minke Whale, Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy Labor Day Weekend! The weather started out a little rainy, but turned out to be a gorgeous trip during our whale watching trip. We got to see a minke whale, common dolphins, and sea lions. We can’t wait to see what else we find this weekend.
8/31/23 Minke Whale, Dolphins, Sea Lions We found a minke whale! We were so excited and this friendly fella allowed us to get great views. We can’t wait to see what we find this September!
8/27/23 Largest Megapod of common dolphins this year August has been a busy month. We have been seeing lots of dolphins every single trip except for yesterday. Today, we were able to see the largest megapod of dolphins that we’ve seen this whole year. It was absolutely stunning. We are keeping our eyes peeled for whales in the meantime!
8/7/23 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We were so excited to find a blue whale today! It was migrating south. We felt super lucky to find it as we were the only boat in San Diego to find a whale. We also saw lots of dolphins too. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
8/6/23 Common Dolphins, Offshore Bottlenose, Mola Mola, Sea Lions The weather has been just gorgeous here in San Diego. A little cool in the morning, but it warms up in the afternoon. Captain Troy and crew headed out looking for whales. Unfortunately, we did not see whales. In fact, no whale watching group in San Diego saw whales. That said, we had great views of both common dolphins and offshore bottlenose dolphins. Guests were delighted to see these animals jumping and playing. We also got to see a very friendly mola mola, otherwise known as a sunfish. These animals rise to the surface to bask in the sun. It was great to see! All these people get to come back for free at any time to fulfill their whale watching guarantee.
8/5/23 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins The days are warm, it finally feels like summer. Don’t forget to bring a jacket or sweatshirt, the weather cools off out on the water. We found a great group of common dolphins. We also saw sea lions and Navy dolphins. Everyone gets to come back for free!
8/4/23 1 Blue Whale, 1 Minke Whale, Common Dolphons, Offshore Bottlenose What a day! We saw so much activity out on the water today. We saw a magnificent blue whale and we also saw a minke whale too. There were a ton of common dolphins. We also saw a pod of offshore bottlenose. We can’t wait to see what we will find tomorrow!
8/2/23 Common Dolphins, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, Submarines While the weather was spectacular, we did not see any whales today. Everyone gets to come back for free any time to fulfill their whale watching guarantee.
8/1/23 4 Blue Whales, 400 Common Dolphins, Ohio Class Submarine The ocean was very flat. It has been humid in the mornings, so we weren’t surprised when the sky opened up and rained on us during the trip. Everyone got wet, but the sun was out soon after so everyone and everything dried pretty quickly. Captain Troy headed out to the canyon and found two pairs of blue whales. Guests were able to get fantastic views. On the way back in, we saw 400 common dolphins. There was also a command change on an Ohio Class Submarine, so guests were able to get wonderful views. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/30/23 1 Blue Whale, 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Another great day here in San Diego. We were able to have super close encounters with a friendly blue whale that swam right towards us. We also had a large pod of common dolphins that actually stampeded in a circle outward. We have never seen that before. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/29/23 4 Blue Whales, 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an exciting day! We headed out and it was a little overcast, but warm on land. While we were raising sail, we felt raindrops. It was a little tropical rain shower, but the rain quickly subsided. We headed south and went through a small pod of common dolphins. With the help of our great whale watching community, we knew about a group of whales to the southwest. We finally made it and were greatly rewarded with super close views of three whales and a distant view of a fourth whale. The close views were absolutely spectacular. We also had a wall of about 500 common dolphins swimming towards us. On our way back home, we had beautiful blue skies and sunny weather. This is what whale watching dreams are made of. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/28/23 1 Blue Whale, 600 Common Dolphins, Mola Mola We headed out west and the seas were very calm. There were two pods of common dolphins, it was awesome. The first pod had about 20 individuals and the second pod had 500. It was great to see them jumping and playing on both sides of the boat. Suddenly, Fathom saw a fluke print, then another and another. Sure enough, it was a whale! We followed this whale and it turned out to be a juvenile blue whale that was probably around 7 months old. It was small, but it looked very healthy and well fed. We looked and looked for mom, but never found her. Fellow whale watching boats saw whales in that area earlier in the morning, so maybe she just swam a couple miles away. We hope that they reunite soon!
7/26/23 5 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions The density is still high for blue whales in San Diego. It’s really amazing that we are still having these days were we see five blue whales in a small area. There must be a ton of food in the waters for us to see them in late July with such high density. We consider ourselves very lucky!
7/25/23 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Offshore Bottlenose, Sea Lions We headed out west looking for whales. On the way, we found common dolphins and offshore bottlenose dolphins. Through the help of our great whale watching community, we learned that there was a single blue whale just a couple miles to the north. We spoke with all the passengers to see if it would be alright if we were late. Everyone said it was okay, so we went for it. Guests were thrilled to get such a fantastic view of this massive blue whale. We even got to see the tail during it’s terminal dive. That extra hour was certainly worth it. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/24/23 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions These ocean conditions are spectacular. It is overcast and cool out on the water. Some people put on jackets, some use our blankets, but then it warms up on the way in. Don’t forget sunscreen. We had a fantastic trip with great views of a beautiful blue whale. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/23/23 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Captain Troy headed to the north. All the whale watching boats were looking for whales and no one had found anything in the morning. Suddenly, Captain Troy saw a spout. Upon closer investigation, it turned out to be a blue whale. Hurray! We were all thrilled. Captain Troy shared this information with fellow whale watchers too. Everyone was able to see a blue whale today.
7/22/23 No Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today turned into a dolphin watching tour. We didn’t see whales, but we saw hundreds of common dolphins. While the seas were nice and the weather was comfortable, it was a bummer we didn’t see any whales. Everyone from this trip gets to come back for free.
7/21/23 5 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions There were five blue whales that were super spread out. During our time watching them, they started to swim towards the boat. The five whales swam closer together, it was incredible to watch. Everyone had fantastic views. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/20/23 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We had super close views of one blue whale today. That said, we knew about four additional blue whales that were just north of us and they kept swimming north. It’s truly amazing that we have such a high density of blue whales in late July.
7/18/23 6 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We ended up seeing six blue whales today! We even saw a tail during a deep terminal dive. It was incredible. Here in San Diego, we are just so lucky to enjoy these beautiful animals. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/15 & 16 Blue Whales,  Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We saw blue whales on both the 15th and 16th of July. Captain Troy headed down south to the canyon and found several blue whales. We are so glad to find them again. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
7/14/23 2 Blue Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Just incredible conditions today. It was super sunny and flat weater. We headed down to the south and found two magnifient blue whales. It was amazing! We also saw a tail during one of the dives. Yay! They also swam very close to the boat. We got some once in a lifetime views. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
7/10/23 No Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Oh no! We were so sad that we did not see whales today. We have heard that there are  blue whales feeding in Mexico. Hopefully there are still some krill in these waters off of San Diego. We are going to to try looking in a different place tomorrow. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free.
7/9/23 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Wow! We got some incredible views of a blue whale today. It swam so close to the boat. Everyone couldn’t belive it. We also saw spouts from other whales not too far away. We are so excited to see this much density in July.
7/8/23 1 Blue Whale, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We started out with a sunny morning, but then it cooled off by the afternoon. Everyone was glad that they brought jackets! Captain Troy headed out west and we were thrilled to find a stunning blue whale. On our very first look, this whale took a deep dive and we got to see the flukes. How exciting! We stayed with this whale and got to see it over a few cycles. Unlike the other blue whales that have been trending north, this whale trended south. It also swam right to a large pod of common dolphins. The dolphins were jumping and playing, everyone had great views. We can’t wait to see what we will find tomorrow!
7/7/23 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Submarines, LCS What a gorgeous sunny day! We had a great trip with beautiful sunny skies and calm seas. We found a southbound blue whale just 4 miles off the coast. It was surprising to see this animal so close to shore. We followed it for over an hour and guests watched in awe. There was also a lot of naval activity. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow.
7/6/23 2 Blue Whales, Offshore Bottlenose, Submarines We had some fabuous close views of 2 separate blue whales today. We also saw a third blue whale in the distance. It’s great to see so many blues in early July. They will be here as long as the food is here!
7/5/23 3 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a beautiful day today. We had spectacular views of several blue whales. We also had common dolphins during our trip as well. It’s going to be a great month for whale watching!
7/2-4 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Such a great way to celebrate July 4th weekend! We were able to see blue whales and common dolphins every single day. These past few months have been spectacular. We have seen whales every single trip we’ve gone out since mid May.
7/1/23 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions It was a little overcast today, but the seas were nice and calm. We found a single blue whale today that took deep dives and showed us fantastic views of its flukes. We were able to see several deep dives during the trip. It was wonderful! We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow.
6/30/23 5 Blue Whales, 800 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Captain Troy headed south to the canyon and found a wonderful group of blue whales. There were also so many dolphins! Captain Troy’s daughter, Amy, just moved back to town. She and her dog, @walterswhales, sailed with us today. We are thrilled to have them back. Be sure to check out Walter’s instagram, he loves watching the dolphins!
6/29/23 4 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a gorgeous day! The seas are finally calming down with small swells and long periods. The sun was out, making it a beautiful day on the water. We headed just six miles off Point Loma and found a fantastic group of blue whales. They were feeding together, so everyone had great views of these whales. We also saw spouts from two other blue whales in the distance, making our total count six blue whales. We also saw common dolphins during our trip. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
6/28/23 5 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions The sun is still out! The seas are still a bit bumpy, but it was a fantastic day out at sea. We had beautiful views of these blue whales and we even had some great flukes. Guests also saw a great pod of common dolphins. On our way back in, we saw a missile getting loaded into a submarine. It was awesome!
6/27/23 4 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It was a stunning day on the water. At the begining of our trip, we had four blue whales that swam very close together. Then they split up and we stayed with the pair. At one point, they decided to go people watching. They came up right next to the boat. Captain Troy put the boat in neutral so they could swim wherever they pleased. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
6/26/23 4 Blue Whales, Sea Lions, Osprey Helicopter We are now in full sunny summer weather here in San Diego. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still want a jacket/sweatshirt for the wind out on the ocean. That said, the sun was shining the entire day. It’s been bumpy out on the water the last few days, but the sea state should calm down as the week goes on. The whales have been great. We saw a single blue whale, then another single blue whale. We even saw a pair pop up right next to the boat. Everyone couldn’t believe their size, it was amazing to see them so close and hear them breathing. We can’t wait to see what we will find tomorrow!
6/25/23 5 Blue Whales, 500 Common Dolphins, Warship, Sea Lions It was an action packed day today. Not only did we see a blue whale, we saw five blue whales! This season has been incredible. We have seen the highest density of blue whales this year. We can’t wait to see what we will find tomorrow.
6/24/23 3 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Warships We saw three blue whales today and a small pod of common dolphins! Guests were able to get some great views of some active warships out at sea as well.
6/23/23 1 Blue Whale, 300 Common Dolphins, Submarine Thanks to our wonderful whale watching guests, we are able to share the latest blue whale numbers with top scientists. Today, we were able to work with Cascadia Research and they were able to tag more blue whales. It is very exciting to see such a high density of blue whales in San Diego. It’s all because of the food. The food is here, so the whales are here.
6/22/23 1 Blue Whale, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We are on a roll. We have seen blue whales every day this month! We are thrilled to see them out in full force this month. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
6/21/23 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Just another fantastic day at sea! We saw a blue whale up close and spouts out in the distance. We also saw our friendly Navy Dolphins. We can’t wait to see what this week has in store.
6/20/23 Blue Whale Cow & Calf, 1 Blue Whale, Sea Lions We saw a total of three blue whales today. One group was an adorable cow and calf. It is absolutely thrilling to see a young blue whale in our San Diego waters. We hope to see it year after year for many generations to come. These magnificent animals can live up to 90 years old!
6/19/23 2 Blue Whales, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Sunshine, it’s great to see you! We finally saw some sun today. We headed out west and had some incredible views of two different blue whales. We also saw spouts of 2 other whales in the distance. The boat was surrounded by scattered common dolphins during the journey to the whales and the journey home. It was magnificent. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/18/23 3 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy Father’s Day! Just another wonderful day out on the water. It was a little bumpy today, but the conditions were still great. We found a blue whale cow and calf, and then we saw a third whale. Guests were able to get some great video. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/17/23 3 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an incredible encounter. At one point, we sailed next to a single blue whale while we saw the cow and calf swim right towards it. The whales passed eachother and we were able to witness all three whales. Moma blue even took a deep dive and showed us her beautiful tail. The single whale swam right under the bow of the boat (Captain Troy was in neutral) and then took a deep dive on the other side of the boat. We saw two blue tails in one cycle. What a day!
6/16/23 1 Blue whale, Navy Dolphins, Submarine, Sea Lions It was a gorgeous sunny day. We could see blue sky and big puffy clouds. It’s been a gloomy and cold June, so it was quite refreshing to see the sunshine. We were able to get some fabulous views of a single blue. This whale showed us it’s flukes during a deep dive, it was so close to the boat. We are truly getting spoiled.
6/15/23 BREACHING HUMPBACK, Blue Whale, Offfshore Bottlenose Dolphins, Submarine What an amazing experience. This time of year is my absolute favorite as you never know what you will see. Today, we headed out west. The waters were very calm and it was a bit overcast. Suddenly, a guest saw a splash. Captain Troy turned and soon enough, we found a magnificent humpback whale. This whale breached more times than I can even count. It rolled on its side and flapped it’s pectoral fins. It even rolled on it’s back and flapped both pectoral fins in the air. This whale kept breaching over and over and over again. It would take a shallow dive (no fluke) and then come up for a huge breach. It did this over and over again. We couldn’t believe it. We then saw another humpback whale breach in the distance. We headed over to it but never saw it breach again. However, there was a blue whale and what looked like a blue whale/fin whale hybrid right next to it. We saw a total of 4 whales today. On our way home, we saw a small pod of 20 bottlenose dolphins. We even saw an outbound LA Class Attack Submarine. What a day, we had a whale of a time. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
6/14/23 5 Blue Whales, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, Ohio Class Submarine The blues are here to stay. We saw 5 blue whales, but they were spread out. We stayed with one that made gorgeous deep dives so we were able to see that stunning 25 foot wide tail. We saw a ton of dolphins swimming our way, so we sailed with them. It was a blast! We circled back and got some last views of the blue whale. We were also super lucky to see an Ohio Class submarine leaving San Diego. It was incredible. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/13/23 6 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We are back out on the water and the conditions are fantastic! It’s a little chilly, but the seas are calm and the animals are feeding. We were thrilled to see 6 blue whales today. We had some super close views and beauiful tail shots. We can’t wait to get back out tomorrow!
6/4/23 Cow & Juvenile Blue Whale, 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Just another incredible day. A blue whale juvenile popped up very close to the boat and actually swam towards us. Captain Troy just kept the boat in neutral. The juvenile’s mom came up too. Talk about curious whales! It was incredible. We then saw a huge pod of common dolphins. The whales popped up a mile away from us, so we followed the dolphins. Everyone had a great time. We will be closed for a couple days. We will resume operations on June 13th. See you then!
6/3/23 Blue Whales, 400 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a day! We saw blue whales and dolphins. The density of blue whales is decreasing, but we can still see spouts miles away. We are not sure how many blue whales are still in San Diego, but we had super great views of at least 3 whales. We were with a pair, but they joined a third blue whale. We were able to witness a lot of rolling. In addition, the common dolphins were swimming with the blue whales. It was magical to say the least.
6/2/23 50+ Blue Whales, Sea Lions A third extraordinary day! There are a few blue whales out here that love taking deep dives and showing us their flukes. Less than 10% of blue whales show us their tails, but the last few days have been epic. We have seen so many blue whale flukes. Simply incredible. You can see huge spouts way out in the distance, so we know that these whales are out there feeding.
6/1/23 50+ Blue Whales, Sea Lions Just another extraordinary day. Just like yesterday, there were spouts everywhere we looked. We had guests that sailed with us yesterday that rebooked to today, just to see the blue whales again. With the coordinated effort of our fellow whale watching companies, the captains have been able to discern that there’s at least 50 blue whales in just a 4 mile area. The density of whales from the canyon down to the Coronado Islands is just spectacular. Captain Troy has reached out to the Navy and Cascadia Research to let them know about these animals feeding in our waters. Scientists will be coming down to document these magnificent creatures.
5/31/23 20 Blue Whales, Minke Whale, sea lions Extraordinary day! On the way out to the canyon, we saw a minke whale. As we kept going, we started to see huge spouts. One after another, after another. We could see spouts as far as the eye could see. It turns out that we were able to witness the highest density of blue whales that we have seen since 2015. It was incredible. There were blue whales everywhere. We were able to get some amazing views. We even saw some blue whale poop. This is a good sign since it means that these whales are successfully feeding in our San Diego waters. They eat 40 million krill per day. This will not last forever, so be sure to come whale watching with us soon!
5/30/23 3 Fin Whale, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins These conditions are just fabulous for finding whales. The seas are calm and the winds are light. The fin whales are feeding in the same area day after day. We are so lucky. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
5/29/23 Fin Whale, Turtle, Sea Lions It was still gray, but we found a stunning fin whale today! It swam right next to the boat. Everyone was able to get some amazing views. We also saw more spouts in the distance, but we wanted to spend time with this friendly whale. On our way back in, we saw a turtle!
5/28/23 Blue Whale, 2 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We are seeing May gray again, but we found another blue whale today! At one point, we had a blue whale on one side of the boat and a fin whale on the other side of the boat. It was amazing. We also saw two more spouts in the distance. We are starting to see more and more blue whales. These animals are just huge. If you haven’t seen a blue whale, come to San Diego for a chance of a lifetime.
5/27/23 Trip 1: 5 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Gray Whale

While we saw a total of at least 5 fin whales, we were incredibly lucky to get super close views of a curious pair. At one point, we had a whale on either side of the boat! It’s just incredible to hear these huge animals taking a breath right next to you. There is nothing like it!

During our second trip, we saw the juvenile gray whale that has been in the San Diego bay for 9 months. It was close to the submarine base.

5/26/23 3 Fin whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The fins are staying in the same spot. We keep going back to the canyon and we are finding them feeding. It’s great to see that there is so much food in the water. We can’t wait to get out and see them again tomorrow.
5/25/23 2 Fin Whales, Sea Lions The seas were flat and the skies were sunny today! Generally, May is gray, so it was wonderful to feel some warm sun. We had some fabulous views of fin whales today. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
5/22/23 Blue Whale cow & calf, humpback whale, fin whales We are starting to get very excited out here on the water. Today, we saw three different species: blue whale, fin whale, and humpback whale! They were all within just a few miles of one another in the Coronado canyon. Everyone was feeding. We can’t wait to get back out on the water.
5/21/23 3 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a fantastic day! Don’t get me wrong, it is chilly on the water. Bring a warm coat, socks, and a beanie. That said, the sea conditions are very calm, allowing perfect conditions to see spouts. Sure enough, we went to the same spot as yesterday and found three fin whales in the area. It was just incredible to see these animals feeding in our San Diego waters. On our way back in, we stumbled upon a large pod of at least 400 common dolphins. Their little calves looked so darn cute. We can’t wait to get back out there!
5/20/23 3 Fin Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins Another great day for the books! Today, we had a fantastic trip. It was a private whale watching excursion for a small corporate group. We headed out west and found a group of three fin whales. They were very friendly whales. Everyone couldn’t believe just how big they were! We can’t wait to get back out tomorrow!
5/19/23 5 Fin Whales, Sea Lions, Navy dolphins What a day! It was chilly and overcast, but the sea state was fantastic. There were no white caps. We headed out west and found a total of 5 fin whales. They were incredible! We were able to get several views of a beautiful pair of fin whales that swam close to the boat. It was amazing. We had an awesome time! We can’t wait to go out tomorrow.
5/18/23 1 Humpback Whale, Sea Lions, Navy dolphins We were so excited to find a humpback whale today! This time of year is incredibly diverse. We also saw sea lions and navy dolphins. We can’t wait for tomorrow.
5/15/23 3 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an incredible day. This was a once in a lifetime experience, even for the crew. We headed out to an area where there were 3 fin whales. One of the whales was very curious about us and swam around the yacht America several times. We couldn’t believe it. When I say it was right next to us, I’m not kidding. Captain Troy was just in neutral, letting the whale check us out. We were completely amazed by the entire experience. We can’t wait to get out on the water. See you Thursday!
5/14/23 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy Mother’s Day! The seas were calm and the visibility was fantastic. It was still a little chilly. We had such a great time celebrating mothers of all kinds today. Captain Troy headed to the same spot as yesterday. We saw a single spout, stayed in the area for 20 minutes and the whale didn’t pop up again. They can swim 4 miles in just one breath, so we decided to move on. Suddenly, we found ourselves completely surrounded by dolphins. There were a ton of cute calves swimming with their moms, it was adorable! Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free any time. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
5/13/23 2 Fin Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Today, we headed south towards the canyon. It is still chilly due to May gray, so don’t forget to pack a warm jacket. We were so excited to find two huge fin whales. Their dives lasted around 8 minutes, but we were able to get some great surface time. We can’t wait to come back tomorrow!
5/12/23 1 Humpback Whale, Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins, Sea Lions, Drones What an action packed day! It was chilly because it was overcast this morning. We expect it to be overcast during this time of year due to “May Gray.” As soon as we started our adventure, we got to see some really cool brand new navy drones that were being tested. We headed out to sea and found the same humpback whale we saw a few days ago. The whale watching community has named him “Barney.” We got to see him over several cycles. He seemed to be feeding in that particular area. We also saw a pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins. We can’t wait to get out tomorrow.
5/11/23 1 Fin Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The sun finally came out for us today. The skies were blue with puffy clouds. It was spectacular. We headed out to sea and found a fin whale feeding in the area. It was so cool!
5/8/23 BREACHING humpback, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions What a big surprise! This is why May is one of my favorite times of year. We just never know what we will see. Today, we found a humpback whale that happened to breach just 100 yards away from the boat. It was so close, we couldn’t believe it! Even better, everyone was looking that way and several guests even got the breach on camera. Be sure to check it out on our social media!
5/7/23 2 Sail Drones, Sea Lions, Submarines The weather was spectaular today with flat seas. Much to our disappointment, we did not see any whales. That being said, we did see a lot of cool naval activity. We saw two sail drones out on the ocean. We also saw submarines at the base. There were a ton of naval security boats surrounding the submarines. It was definitely fun to see all the activity.
5/6/23 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions It’s officially blue whale watching season. We saw another blue whale today. Be sure to book your tickets while the blue whales are here!
5/5/23 3 Blue Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy Cinco de Mayo! We saw three blue whales today, two of which we were able to see up close. Guests were even lucky enough to see a tail on the last dive. It was incredible. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
5/1/23 Gray Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The sun finally came out today and we were so excited! It was still overcast in the morning, but it burned off later in the day. We headed out of La Playa to find an active group of Navy Dolphins. The trainers had them do all sorts of cool tricks for us. We headed over to the sea lions at the bait barge. Just past the submarine base, Derek suddenly called out “spout!” Sure enough, we found our friendly gray whale swimming close to Ballast Point. We watched this whale for several cycles. The waters in the bay were nice and calm. We headed out to the ocean, which proved to be bumpy. We did have a great view of a mola mola, and then we headed back for home. We can’t wait to see you later this week!
4/31/23 Trip 1: Humpack Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Gray Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

What a day! We headed out to sea and found a large pod of scattered common dolphins. The seas were calm, but it was a little chilly. Don’t forget a jacket! On our way back in, we found a southbound humpback whale. We were able to get some very nice views. During our second trip, we headed out to sea and found another group of common dolphins. We didn’t see any spouts, so we headed back home. In the bay, we found our resident gray whale. This juvenile has been here for 5 weeks! We were able to get some great views before heading back home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
4/29/23 1 Blue Whale, 30 Risso’s Dolphins, Sea Lions, Mola Mola Today was an awesome day! We headed out west. Although it was overcast, the seas were calm and the winds were mild. The visibility was perfect for whales. Captain Troy decided to head south towards the canyon. On our way, guests spotted some Risso’s dolphins. We ended up sailing with a pod of about 30 Risso’s dolphins. There were a couple calves in the pod as well. They looked very healthy. One even breached about 7 times! Captain Troy headed further out west and suddenly saw something break the surface. It ended up being a blue whale! How exciting! We had incredible views of a massive blue whale right next to the boat. Fathom was able to get some amazing video. Be sure to check it out on our Instagram page, @nxtlevelsailing. It was time to head for home. We saw a mola mola (sunfish) on the way home.

We did have a corporate cocktail cruise later in the day. During that trip, we had incredible views of a juvenile gray whale that was right next to Ballast Point. Could it be the same gray whale from several weeks ago? It’s hard to say but it was in the exact same spot. We are so excited for tomorrow!

April Fin Whales, Humpback Whales, Gray Whales, Common Dolphins It’s been busy on the water aboard the yacht America. The past few weeks, we have seen a ton of fin whales feeding in our nutrient rich waters. We have also seen humpback whales. As we are approaching the end of April, we are coming to the end of our gray whale watching season. However, we did see a cow and a calf just off Point Loma. We have also seen large pods of common dolphins. We have yet to see other species of dolphins, but we know with spring around the corner, we should start to see more species any day now. We are eagerly looking forward to an action-packed spring.
4/10/23 Fin Whale, Gray Whale, Hummingbirds, Sea Lions It was a little gray and overcast today. We headed out to sea and saw a fin whale up close. There were also a ton of hummingbirds flying around us. It was really special to see these critters out in the ocean! We headed back home and found our friendly gray whale right next to the submarine base. We can’t wait to get back out in the ocean!
4/9/23 Gray Whale, Fin Whale, Common Dolphins We saw a gray whale in the San Diego Bay right next to Zininga. There was a kayak fisherman really close to the whale, so we asked him to stay a little further away to give the whale some space. After a few great views, we headed out west and found a fin whale. We were able to get some spectacular views. A pod of about 20 common dolphins swam by and we followed them home. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
4/8/23 Trip 1: Gray whale, Fin Whale, Sea lions

Trip 2: Fin Whale, Sea Lions

The sun was out and the winds were light this moring. The water was glassy. We immediately found the juvenile gray whale right in the middle of the channel. While we were watching it, a motoryacht started to zoom by. Captain Troy got the driver’s attention and was able to encourage him to slow down. The driver saw the whale and thanked us. He was able to avoid a collision and his party was happy to see this young gray whale.

We headed out to sea and found a very large fin whale feeding. This was so cool! We also learned that there was a second fin whale just two miles away. After some fantastic looks, we headed for home. We were able to come back and find this fin whale during our second trip. We were not able to find the juvenile gray, but we heard reports that it was spotted close to the ammunition loading dock. We can’t wait for tomorrow!

4/7/23 Trip 1 & 2: Gray Whale, Humpback Whale, Dolphins, Sea Lions, Sea Birds We had two trips today and we were excited to see the same animals on both trips. We found our friendly juvile gray whale feeding in the San Diego Bay. We also found a feeding frenzy out in the ocean. There were several hundred birds diving on the bait and 300 dolphins feeding on the same bait. A humpback whale came up right in the middle of the feeding frenzy and ate a ton of the food. During the afternoon, the wind picked up. That said, we found the same animals which was fantastic. There is a lot of food in the water this spring here in San Diego. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
4/6/23 Gray Whale, Humpback Whale, Sea Lions The sun was shining and it felt warmer today. We headed out and found our juvenile gray whale feeding off of Ballast Point again. After some great looks, we headed out west. The seas were much calmer today compared to yesterday, which made a smoother sail for guests. We found a humpback whale that was swimming north. All of a sudden, we saw a peduncle throw. It was amazing to see these 12-ft wide flukes slap the water. We can’t wait to see what we will find tomorrow.
4/5/23 Trip 1: Gray Whale, Humpback, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Gray Whale, Offshore Bottlenose, USS Theodore Roosevelt, Sea Lions

We have been shut down for a few days because of the big storms hitting the west coast. It’s crazy to think that the swells were 15 feet yesterday. The seas were still bumpy from the storm. That said, we were so excited to get out to sea and go whale watching. This morning, we found a juvenile gray whale before we even made it to sea. This little juvenile looked like it was trying to feed on the sea floor. It was located just off of Ballast Point. After watching it for a few breaths, we headed out west. We were thrilled to find a humpback whale feeding with common dolphins and birds. Everyone was able to get super close looks of this humpback whale.

During our second trip, we found the same gray whale in the San Diego Bay. We watched it for a few cycles, and then we saw offshore bottlenose dolphins just south of the lighthouse. We spoke with the other whale watching boats and the humpback we found earlier swam far off into the west. We decided to head south towards Hotel Del Coronado. While we didn’t find another whale, we were able to have an incredible crossing with the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier. It was amazing to see this ship out at sea. We visited with the juvenile gray whale again and headed back home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!

4/2/23 Trip 1: 1 Gray Whale, 2 Fin Whales, Common dolphins, Sea Lion

Trip 2: 1 Gray Whale, 2 Fin Whales, Common dolphins, Sea Lions

Today we had two trips. The sun was out, but it was still chilly on the water. We found a gray whale in the San Diego Bay that appears to be feeding. We saw this juvenile gray whale on both trips. It looked healthy, but it stopped just outside of Ballast Point to have a snack. It was there all day as we saw it on both trips. During the first trip, we headed out west and found a pod of 500 dolphins. It was time to head for home. Then, a fellow whale watching boat notified us of two fin whales that were only 4 miles away. Captain Troy decided to go for them as they are the second largest animal on the planet. We were able to get closer and it was incredible! Everyone was so excited. We made it home, but we were 15 minutes late. During the second trip, we found the juvenile gray whale in the bay again. We headed out west. The fin whales were further away, which meant it took longer to get to them. We also were able to get to sail with several hundred dolphins which was really cool too. There is a storm on Monday with 17 foot swells, so we won’t be sailing tomorrow. We can’t wait for Tuesday!
4/1/23 1 Gray Whale Today was not a whale watching trip, but we still saw a whale. We sailed in the America’s Schooner Cup race and placed first in our class. While we were racing home, we saw a gray whale in the San Diego Bay!
3/28/23 Fin Whale Cow and Calf, Humpback Whale, Common Dolphins What a fantastic day! We saw a fin whale cow and calf, a humpback whale, and a megapod of common dolpins. There was so much food in the water. We are having a phenomenal spring season!
3/26/23 1 Gray Whale, Megapod of Dolphins, Sea Lions What a wonderful day! We got to see a northbound gray whale and a huge megapod of dolphins. The dolphins followed us for several miles on the way in to San Diego. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
3/24/23 Trip 1: 1 Deceased Gray, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins, Submarine

Trip 2: 2 Gray Whales, Whale, Sea Lions, Navy Dolpins

The first trip was a little bleak as we didn’t find any live animals.  We did find a deceased gray whale floating on its back. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free to fulfill their whale watching guarantee.  We did get to see some cool activity as we watched a submarine leave the San Diego Bay. The second trip was much better as we were able to see two whales. We headed out west and found a gray whale just off of Point Loma. Then, we headed down to the south because there was a gray whale just off of Hotel Del Coronado. It seemed that this gray whale was feeding, or at least trying to feed as well.
3/20/23 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions At first, we just saw a pair of northbound gray whales. Then, we realized it became a group of three gray whales! These animals were very active and the swam right next to the boat. Everyone had amazing views. We can’t wait to sail again soon!
3/19/23 Humpback cow & calf, Megapod common dolpins, Sea Lions What a spectacular day. There was so much food in the water. On the first trip, Captain Troy found a huge bait ball with a humpback cow and calf. There were a ton of dolphins feeding at this location too. Captain Troy took the second trip to the same location and they found the humpack cow and calf again. Although it was a little drizzly, everyone had a fantastic time watching the wildlife. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
3/17/23 5 Gray Whales, 800 dolphins, Sea Lions, Submarine The sun was out, it was a stunning day. Many guests and crew were in t-shirts today, it finally felt like spring. We saw a total of 5 northbound gray whales between both trips today. We also saw a ton of dolphins on both trips. We even followed a submarine out to sea during the second trip, everyone got super close views. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
3/16/23 Trip 1: 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Breaching Gray Whale. 500 Common Dolphins

What a great day! We were so excited to go whale watching and find gray whales today. There was a storm yesterday, so we did not go out yesterday. We headed out west today and found a wonderful group of three gray whales off the coast of San Diego. These were curious gray whales, they swam very close to the boat. On our second trip, we headed out west and found a group of two gray whales. One of the whales breached no less than  7 times. One was super close to the Yacht America. We couldn’t believe it. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
3/14/23 Trip 1: Blue whale cow and calf

Trip 2: Humpback whale cow and calf

Incredible! Two different types of whales and two different species today. We are the first boat in San Diego to see a blue whale. It was just so exciting to see a blue whale mom with her baby! These animals are here to feed on the krill in our abundant waters. We are so excited to see them already. During our second trip, we also saw a humpback with her calf. This cow was also here to feed. We actually got to see the cow lunge feed. It was absolutely spectacular! It is officially spring time in San Diego. We are in for a fantastic season.
3/13/23 2 Gray Whales, 500 Dolphins, Sea Lions What a spectacular day! President Biden landed in San Diego and had a special occasion at the submarine base. There was so much security. Our guests were able to watch Air Force One land on North Island. We then saw the ships and submarines dressed up for his visit. We even saw the Coast Guard patrolling the entrance of the San Diego Bay with their big guns. It was really cool to see! With the help of our whale watching community, we found two very friendly gray whales. These northbound whales stopped and spy hopped, breached, and even circled around the boat. Everyone was amazed by their activity and grace. It was finally time to head for home, but Fathom saw a large group of dolphins in the distance. We asked everyone if we could be a little late back to the dock. Everyone gave us a thumbs up, so we had a fantastic time sailing with these common dolphins. It was spectacular! We can’t wait for tomorrow!
3/8/23 Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, Submarine, LCS It was a beautiful day on the water! We saw navy dolphins, sea lions, submarines, a littoral combat ship (LCS), but unfortunately no whales. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free anytime. We will be shut down for a few days for scheduled maintenance, so we will see you in a few days.
3/7/23 500 dolphins, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, LCS, Submarine Some days, we get a humble reminder that we are searching for wild animals. Today was one of those days. We were able to see a ton of dolphins, which was super cool! We also saw a lot of military activity. However, we didn’t find any whales. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free to fulfill their whale watching guarantee.
3/6/23 5 Gray Whales, Mega Megapod Common Dolphins, Sea Lions The sun was out, but it was still a chilly day at sea. We headed out west as we heard about a lot of bird activity on the radio. Upon closer investigation, we ended up finding a huge megapod of common dolphins. This was a very dense and active group. After sailing with this group for a while, we continued out to the bank to find whales. Suddenly, we saw a clear spout. Then another, then another! Once we got closer, it turned out we were sailing with a group of 5 northbound gray whales. They were healthy adults. After sailing with them for several cycles, we suddenly saw another megapod of dolphins stampeding from west to east. As they crossed our bow, we looked out to the east and saw that the first mega pod that we saw earlier was joining this new megapod. It was truly incredible. There were literally thousands of dolphins. Captain Troy called it a field and it almost looked like an island of activity that stretched for miles as far as the eye could see. Everyone was in awe. This is a great sign that we will have a very active spring season. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
3/5/23 Trip 1: 6 Gray whales, 400 dolphins, sea lions

Trip 2: 2 humpback whales, 800 dolphins, sea lions

What an incredible day! There was so much wildlife out in the ocean. We had two trips and both were action packed. During the first trip, we headed out west and a saw spouts in the distance. With a closer look, it turned out we had two northbound gray whales. These whales popped up right next to the boat several times. Then, we saw a lot of dolphins down to the south and a few spouts! We headed down to the south and found another northbound gray whale. We sailed with this whale and the dolphins, then started heading for home. Suddenly, Troy saw another spout with more dolphins. We got closer and it was a group of three gray whales, also heading north. For our second trip, we headed out west and saw some splashing in the distance. We found ourselves surrounded by two humpack whales and a ton of dolphins. These humpback whales were very large, they looked extremely healthy and well fed. Everyone was feeding right off our San Diego coast. There were also a bunch of birds in the area feeding as well. It was so cool to see. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
3/4/23 4 Humpback Whales, 100+ Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Spring is here! We love this time of year because there is an overlap between gray whales and humpback whales. Today, we saw 4 humpback whales feeding along with a large group of common dolphins. The birds were also feeding as well. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
3/3/23 3 Gray whales, 1 Humpback Whale, 600 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today, we were determined to find animals. We headed out west for two hours without seeing any sign of wildlife. Suddenly, we hit the bank and we found a group of northbound  gray whales! We then saw some splashes to the south and also saw a spout. We sailed down and sure enough, had incredible views of the biggest humpback I have ever seen. It popped up right next to the boat. Everyone couldn’t believe it. This whale took us right to a group of dolphins. It was amazing. We ended getting back an hour late on this trip, but it was worth it since everyone had a spectacular experience seeing wildlife. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
3/2/23 7 Gray Whales, BREACH, Sea Lions There was a big storm yesterday with high winds, so we were very excited to finally get out on the water. The seas were a little bumpy, but it was still a nice day out at sea. We headed out west and Fathom saw spouts in the distance. Suddenly, guests yelled in excitement. A gray whale breached! It breached again! We saw this happy gray whale breach as least five times in a row. It was so exciting to this type of activity. It turned out that there were seven gray whales swimming north together. It was truly spectacular when all seven popped up at the same time. It really took everyone’s breath away. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/28/23 Bryde’s Whale, Bottlenose Dolphins, LCAC, Navy SEALS The sun was out, but the winds were cool. While we saw some rain clouds, Captain Troy did an excellent job steering clear of the rain. We headed north and got some very close views of a Bryde’s whale. It took a deep dive that lasted longer than 10 minutes, so we headed down south to see what else we could find. We ended up seeing Navy SEALS jumping out of a plane and parachuting down into the water. It was so cool! We also saw two LCAC’s speeding by. On our way back in, we also saw some bottlenose dolphins. We can’t wait to see you on Thursday. In the meantime, tie down the hatches to get ready for the storm tomorrow!
2/27/23 2 Gray Whales, 800 common dolphins, sea lions, Navy SEALS The weather today was spectacular. The seas were calm and the sun was out. We had a fantastic day out at sea. As soon as we left the San Diego Bay, we saw a spout! It was a juvenile northbound gray whale. We knew about a larger gray whale out to the west, so we kept sailing. Then, we saw a large pod of common dolphins. There were at least 800 dolphins actively feeding. We sailed with the dolphins for a while and guests got great pictures. Then, Captain Troy sailed to the south and caught up with a large adult southbound gray whale. We were able to get great views of this whale as well, but we wanted to see what else we could find. We headed out west because Fathom saw a bait ball. There was also a plane flying overhead. Suddenly, we saw several Navy SEALS parachute out of the plane. It was so exciting! We finally reached the bait ball and found some more dolphins. What an action packed day. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/19/23 Trip 1: 3 Humpback Whales, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Single Gray Whale, Sea Lions

There is so much life in the water! We found a group of three humpback whales during our first trip. During our second trip, we found a single southbound whale. However, this whale was extra curious. It would come out of the water on the first breath and look at us with it’s eye. It was truly amazing. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
2/18/23 Trip 1: Cow & Calf Gray Whale, Sea Lions

Trip 2: 3 Gray Whales, Megapod Dolphins, Sea Lions

We are truly spoiled with this sunny weather. We found a southbound cow and calf headed towards Mexico. Both looked very healthy. We hope that they have a safe journey to Mexico and back to Alaska. During our second trip, we found three gray whales and a thousand dolphins. The water was unusually glassy and we got to see the sunset on the way in. Both trips were absolutely stunning. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/17/23 2 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Just another spectacular day here in San Diego. We found two beautiful adult gray whales that were swimming south. These were very healthy adults that were curious about the yacht America. They swam very closer to us and everyone was able to get some amazing views. Suddenly, common dolphins came in to play. It was incredible! Marie was quite involved with the dolphins and whales, she ran up and down the boat notifying us about these animals. She is such a smart pup! We can’t wait to see what we will find tomorrow!
2/16/23 2 Gray Whales, LCAC, LCS, Sea Lions Today was a whale watching dream! The sun was out and the seas were flat, it was a perfect day on the water. It was a little chilly when we headed into the wind, but otherwise it was gorgeous. We headed out west and found a southbound gray whale. This whale had beautiful dives and showed us it’s tail several times. We followed it for a long time. It was finally time time to go home, but we found another gray whale on the way back. We escorted this whale and notified an incoming Landing Cushion Air Craft (LCAC) so they could steer clear of this whale. Once the whale was clear of the LCAC, we headed for home. We also got to see an outbound LCS. We can’t wait for this weekend!
2/15/23 1 Gray Whale, Sea Lions, LCS The sun was out but it was quite chilly on the water. We headed out to sea and the ocean was not flat. There were some swells that caused the boat to rock back and forth. We found a single southbound gray whale. Captain Troy followed it for several cycles and we shared the sighting with other whale watching boats. It was finally time for us to head in. On our way, we had a very close view of a Littoral Combat Ship. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/12/23 3 Gray Whales, 2 Humpback Whales, Dolphins, Sea Lions What a beautiful day! The sun was out and the skies were just incredible. We headed out west and found a southbound juvenile gray whale. After a few cycles, we went to see what else we could find. We came across two humpback whales feeding with common dolphins. It was so cool! We stayed with this group for a while and then headed for home. On our way back, we found a pair of gray southbound gray whales. What an action packed day. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/11/23 Gray Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It was a little bumpy out at sea today. Captain Troy emailed everyone the morning of the trip and made an announcement letting people know that it would be bumpy. For those concerned about seasickness, this was not their day. We offered refunds for those who did not want to go. That said, it was perfectly safe and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We saw a southbound gray whale as soon as we left the bay. We then saw a group of 100 common dolphins feeding close by. It was wonderful! We headed back in to our home dock. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/10/23 4 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions WOW! Just a spectacular day here in San Diego. It was sunny with super flat seas and calm winds. We headed south and found a beautiful group of four southbound gray whales. They were super friendly and came right up next to the boat. Guests and crew were both in awe! There were about 200 common dolphins swimming with the whales as well. It was amazing. We finally had to say goodbye to the whales and head for home. It was a beautiful sail back, but a little chilly, so guests were glad to have their jackets. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
2/9/23 4 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, LCAC Today was another great day! We found a southbound whale as soon as we left San Diego Bay. We headed out west to see what else we could find and sure enough, we found another whale. However, this whale was swimming north! The first northbound whale of the season! We followed it for a few cycles and then peeled off and followed another pair of southbound whales. This pair was extra adorable as they were a cow and a new calf. So cute! We can’t wait to see you all tomorrow.
2/8/23 4 Gray Whales, Sea Lions We are spoiled with this gorgeous weather. Captain Troy headed south and found a magnificent group of four gray whales. They were swimming very close together and they were friendly whales. Everyone was able to get great views! We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/7/23 3 Gray Whales, 800 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a beautiful sunny day! We had a wonderful day out on the ocean. At first, we found a little juvenile gray whale. It swam right towards a large pod of common dolphins. We sailed with these dolphins and then spotted a pair of large adult gray whales. It was awesome to watch these big whales take deep dives. After some fantastic views, we headed for home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/5/23 1 Gray Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy Sunday! We headed out west and we were very excited to find a single gray whale. This whale was traveling south. We followed it for quite some time and then we had to head for home. Monday’s trip is cancelled due to inclement weather. We are excited to see you on Tuesday!
2/4/23 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions This sunny weather is wonderful! We headed out west and found a single gray whale migrating south. After following it for a few cycles, we decided to head north and see what else we could find. Lo and behold, we found another cute calf swimming with it’s mom. How exciting! We stayed with this adorable pair for a long time and escorted them safely past a fast moving research vessel. The calf came up to breath 3x as much as the mom. They were moving at a steady slow pace of about 3 knots. Hopefully they make it safely to Mexico. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
2/3/23 5 Gray Whales, Megapod Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, Osprey Helicopter We are truly getting spoiled! We had another amazing day with good weather and flat seas. Captain Troy headed towards some dolphins and saw a spout right in the middle of the group. Turned out there were two southbound gray whales. We followed them for a couple cycles, and headed out west to a higher density of dolphins. We had dolphins swimming beside us almost the entire time we were in the ocean. They were all feeding! We found another group of whales with the dolphins. This time, there were three very large adult gray whales. We followed them for a long time. There was another warship today that came barreling in, Warship 7. They were going 20 knots and unresponsive on the radio despite Captain Troy hailing them several times. We stayed with the whales until this ship was clear of the whales in order to prevent a ship strike. Captain Troy will be submitting a report to the Navy as they should not be traveling so fast through known wildlife zones. They also caused a substantial wake. Thanks to our guests, we can be out on the water and help protect these animals. We look forward to seeing you tomorow!
2/2/23 3 Gray Whales, Megapod Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was an incredible whale watching day! The weather was mild, the sun was out, and the seas were flat. We headed out west and a guest actually spotted the first whale spout. Captain Troy followed this whale which turned out to be a juvenile gray whale traveling at about 2 knots. After watching it surface a few times, we decided to sail further west to check out a ton of splashes. It turns out we found a huge pod of at least 1,000 common dolphins! They were spread out over a mile, but it was incredible being completely surrounded by the curious animals. We could hear their whistles as they swam next to the boat. There were a ton of birds on the area too. Suddenly, Captain Troy spotted another spout. We quickly turned south and upon a closer look, Fathom saw a teeny tiny blow. It was a calf! We found a cow and calf gray whale pair. The calf still had fetal folds, so it was still very young. However, both were swimming very well and looked super healthy. We stayed with the cow and calf longer than intially expected because there was a warship (LCS, Warship 8) that was not responding on the radio. They were on a colliding course with the cow and calf. Captain Troy hailed them three separate times with no reponse, however they did speed up. We waited until the ship was well clear   of the cow and calf in order to ensure there would not be a collision, then we left the cow and calf. We entered the San Diego Bay with the warship following close behind. Everyone was able to also great fantastic views of this ship. All in all, it was a fantastic day. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/29/23 4 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions What an adventure! The weather was a deciding factor today and the forecast changed from yesterday to today. The chance of rain increased, so we notified our guests at check in and gave them the option to get a refund right on the spot if they didn’t want to get wet. Many guests chose to reschedule to a different day. There was a small but mighty group ready to sail with waterproof jackets. We headed out to sea. Captain Troy did his best steering around the rain, so we were able to avoid it for the most part. There was a sprinkle of rain that lasted 15 minutes, but the deck dried soon after. We had a fabulous group fo 3 gray whales that we followed for a long time. Then, we also saw a single gray whale on our way back home. It turned out to be a nice afternoon. We look forward to seeing everyone after the storm passes later in the week.
1/28/23 4 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions It really felt like winter today. Everyone was bundled up with warm jackets and gloves. We headed out west and found a fantastic single gray whale. Captain Troy looked behind and suddenly saw a group of three gray whales just a few hundred yards to the west. We followed this trio for a long time, getting great views. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/27/23 6 Gray Whales, 800 Common Dolphins, Sea lions. LCS Everywhere we looked, we saw spouts. Fathom counted at least 10 different whales in the area. We had a close view of a group of four gray whales. They were very consistent whales and they were also quite friendly as well. Captain Troy saw some splashes, so we went to investigate. We found dolphins! There were so many common dolphins. They were scattered, but everywhere we looked, there were dolphins. We followed the dolphins south and suddenly saw two more spouts. We were able to get great views of a pair of gray whales. It was finally time to head for home. We sailed with dolphins and then back home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/26/23 3 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, LCS Today was blustery but sunny. We had warm Santa Ana winds coming in from the west, turning the San Diego Bay into a windy area with white caps. As the day progressed, the wind slowly died down. We headed out to sea and found a fantastic group of gray whales. The seas were flat and it was a gorgeous day on the water. We followed then gray whales for a long time, they were super friendly whales. We also saw a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/24/23 3 Gray Whales, 250 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, USS 72 The sun was out! It was a gorgeous sunny day today. We sailed off the coast and Captain Troy spotted a fluke print. Patience paid off and we found a young whale. This whale was a little nervous, changing direction several times. We gave it space and sailed away as we never want to change behavior. Not too long after, we found a cow and calf pair. The calf was so cute and swam right next to the mom. Everyone had fantastic views. On our way back to San Diego, we found a large pod of 250 common dolphins. They swam on both sides of the boat, delighting everyone with their jumps and whistles. We can’t wait until Thursday!
1/23/23 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions We are seeing whales every day! Today, we saw a single gray whale and followed it for some time. Then, we peeled off to look for another whale. Sure enough, we found another one and followed it as well. It is the height of the season. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/22/23 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, Navy Destroyer The weather took a bit of a turn towards the cooler side since yesterday. The winds were up and it was quite chilly. We headed out to sea and found an adorable cow with her calf. This cow was very small compared to other moms that we have seen. It’s quite possible this was her very first baby. We followed them along at a safe distance. A warship off to the west had an intersecting path with the cow and calf. Captain Troy notified this ship of the cow and calf. With the help of our whale watching community, we made sure that this cow and calf safely made their way past this warship. Captain Troy headed north and found a southbound single gray whale. We were able to get great views of this whale too! It was time to head for home. We sailed past the submarines and sea lions. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/21/23 4 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions It already feels like summer here in San Diego! The sun was out all day today, it was gorgeous. There were some moments where it was cold, so everyone was glad they had jackets. For the most part, it was a beautiful sunny day. We sailed out west and found a single gray whale that was a little tricky to follow. After a couple views, we went to see if we could find more consistent whales. Closer to shore we found a group of three gray whales. These whales were more consistent and showed us gorgeous flukes. Then one whale decided to take off to the west. It was finally time to head for home. We sailed past the submarine base and saw three submarines in the water. We also got a good look at the sea lions. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/20/23 6 Gray Whales, 500 Common Dolphins, Supply Ship, Sea Lions What an action packed day! We headed out to sea and found a large group of 6 gray whales. We stayed with them for a long time. Everyone was able to get gorgeous views of these whales with Point Loma in the background. We headed out west and found a fabulous group of stampeding common dolphins. These dolphins definitely stole the show. On our way back, a gray whale suddenly breached. While we sailed home, a supply ship came into the channel so everyone got great views of that too.  We can’t wait to see you tomorrow.
1/19/23 7 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, C17, LCS What a beautiful day! The seas have finally calmed down. It was sunny and flatter than the past couple days. Captain Troy decided to head south and we spotted a group of three gray whales. We also saw another single to the south. As we approached, we realized there were more gray whales. It was incredible to see an abundance of spouts so close together. In total, we saw 7 gray whales. It turned out that these whales were actually mating. They stopped and dove down for 15 minutes at one point. It has also been action packed with military activity. We saw a C17 fly overhead and a couple Littoral Combat Ships. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/18/23 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, LCAC It has been stormy the past few days. We were so excited to finally soak up the sun and head out to sea. It was still chilly, but the visibility was wonderful. We could even see snow on the mountain peaks. Captain Troy found a pair of southbound gray whales just off the coast. It was a little tricky because there were some good swells, but Captain Troy was still able to get us some fabulous views. On our way home, we were passed by an LCAC hovercraft that swiftly moved passed us. We also saw a huge oil tanker, jets, and Osprey helicopters. It was an action packed day. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/14/23 8 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Captain Troy changed the whale watching trip to occur in the morning in order to miss the storm. We ended up having a fantastic trip with 8 gray whales! There was a group of two, a group of three, and a second group of three. We also saw about 25 dolphins swimming with the whales. When the whales dove down, the dolphins also dove down. It was so cool to watch them play with one another. The weather will be stormy through the night and tomorrow morning, so unfortunately tomorrow’s trip has been cancelled. We hope to see you soon!
1/13/23 3 Gray Whales, 200 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was also a great day! We sailed out and found a group of three gray whales and a large group of dolphins. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow.
1/11/23 3 Whales, 200 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a day! We found a pair and a single gray whale. They were all swimming together, but out of phase. The pair would come up and then the single would come up. We also saw a great group of common dolphins. We can’t wait to see you next time!
1/9/23 1 Whale, Sea Lions Today we found a very nice gray whale. It was super friendly and we sailed with it for a long time. We also got to see sea lions today too!
1/7/23 2 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We found a new calf! It was so exciting. It looked like this female gray whale just had a new baby. Hopefully they have a quick and easy time getting down to the safe warm lagoons in Mexico. The seas were much calmer today, which was fantastic!
1/6/23 Dolphins & Sea Lions Captain Troy shifted this trip to a later time in order to miss the storm. We were the only boat out. Unfortunately we did not see whales, but we did find some great common dolphins. We hope these storms calm down soon!
1/4/23 200 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It has been stormy for the past few days, so we have not sailed. The seas calmed down enough for us to go out sailing today, yay! We headed out and looked all over for spouts. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any whales but we did find a huge pod of Common Dolphins! It was so much fun. Everyone will get to come back for a free trip in the future, no expiration date. It will be stormy again tomorrow, but we will go out on Friday. We can’t wait to see you then!
1/2/23 6 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy New Year! It was stormy yesterday, causing the ocean to be a little bumpy and confused. We headed out west and found a fantastic group of three gray whales. It appeared to be two adults and one juvenile. Off to the east, we also saw another pair of gray whales. After staying with the group of three for a while, we headed east and watched the pair. Then we also followed a single whale in the same area as well. It was finally time to say goodbye so we headed for home. We are closely watching the weather to see what tomorrow will bring!
12/31/22 Trip 1: Gray Whale, 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Gray Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

Happy last day of 2022! We are just so excited to wrap up this wonderful year with some great whale sightings. On both trips, we found large healthy southbound gray whales. There was a little bit of fog and the seas were super flat. It was quite beautiful on the ocean today. We also saw an abundance of dolphins and birds. We can’t wait to see you all next year. Happy New Year!
12/30/22 Trip 1: Pair of Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

It was a whale of a day. In the morning, we found a pair of southbound gray whales. They were swimming just a mile off the coast. We followed them and then one decided to swim out west. We stayed with the other one for over an hour. The water was exceptionally glassy. It was a perfect morning for pictures!

The second trip proved to be equally successful. We found a juvenile gray whale as soon as we left the San Diego Bay. This little fella was swimming south. Then, we saw a northbound gray whale that swam somewhat sporadically. It would swim north, then west, then north again. We saw another southbound gray whale in the distance. Perhaps they were going to meet up? They ended up passing one another. We stayed with the final third whale. This was a very large gray whale and everyone was able to get some amazing fluke pictures. We can’t wait until tomorrow!

12/29/22 Trip 1: 4 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: 2 Humpback Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

It was a little cloudy today, but the visibility was great. We traveled north on the first trip and found a fantastic group of southbound gray whales. They were particularly playful and energetic. On our second trip, we traveled south and found a beautiful pair of humpback whales. One humpback whale had a disfigured fluke, but it seemed to be well fed and healthy. These whales were swimming very slow. All in all, it was a great day on the water. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
12/28/22 Trip 1: Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Gray Whales, Sea Lions

The visibility was fantastic today. There were some dramatic clouds, but it turned out to be a very pretty day. The seas were a little bumpy, but we had a long period so it was smooth overall. The first trip was a beautiful sail, but unfortunately a quiet morning on the ocean. The second trip, we headed out west and Captain Troy found a pair of southbound gray whales. Everyone aboard and in the whale watching community was thrilled. Finally, we found whales! We can’t wait for tomorrow.
12/27/22 Trip 1: Fog, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions

Trip 2: Fog, Sea Lions

It’s crazy to think that yesterday was 80 degrees! We woke up this morning to super thick fog. It was so foggy we couldn’t see Point Loma as we sailed by. The fog lifted a little bit about 5 miles off the coast. We found scattered common dolphins, but no one found whales. The fog lifted a little bit during our second trip, but we still couldn’t see the Los Coronado’s in Mexico. We didn’t find any dolphins either. Everyone on both trips get to come back for free any time!
12/26/22 Trip 1: 2 Gray Whales, Breach 3 times, 500 Common Dolphins

Trip 2: 2 Gray Whales, Breach, Sea Lions

What an action packed day! The weather was gorgeous with a high of 80 degrees. We are so very lucky to be sailing in sunny San Diego. As we left the San Diego Bay, Captain Troy immediately saw a spout! Sure enough there was a southbound gray whale. Then we saw it join with another gray whale. Just as we were about to leave, one of the whales breached three times in a row! It was fantastic. We then saw a ton of common dolphins swimming towards a busy bait ball. There were sea lions, birds, and dolphins. What a sight! Then, we had a fantastic second trip. We headed south and found another pair of gray whales. As soon as we got to them, one breached right away. We watched these whales for at least an hour, only diving down for 4 minutes. It was finally time to say goodbye. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
12/23/22 3 Gray Whales, Sea Lions We headed out west and found a fabulous gray whale. This animal was super friendly and swam right next to the boat. After some amazing views, we went to see what else we could find. Suddenly, a thick fog bank rolled up to us. We saw tail flukes of two other gray whales just off our beam, but we lost them to the fog. We sailed carefully home. It was super cool to watch the fog completely envelope Point Loma. Have a great holiday everyone!
12/22/22 3 Gray Whales, Sea Lions We are loving this amazing weather. The sea is still flat and the sun was out with a high of 64 degrees. We found a fabulous group of 3 gray whales swimming south. They were swimming at a good pace of about 4.5 knots. They only took 5 minute dives, so we were able to sail with them for at least an hour. It was amazing. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
12/21/22 2 Humpback Whales, Breach, 800 Common Dolphins, 20 Pacific White Sided Dolphins Today was action packed to say the least. We headed out west and came across a large pod of dolphins. At first, we thought there were 200 dolphins and then upon closer investigation, we could see that the stretch of dolphins lasted for another two miles. Suddenly, Adam called out a spout. Sure enough, we came closer to two humpback whales. One whale tail lobbed several times right next to the other whale. As we sailed a little closer, the whales appeared to be very curious about our boat. They swam towards us and swam two circles around the boat. Both common dolphins and Pacific White Sided dolphins swam with the whales too. Captain Troy set the yacht America in neutral and just let the whales swim as they pleased. Everyone was in awe. We also saw some beautiful rainbow spouts! Just when we were about to leave, one of the whales breached unexpectedly. We waited several minutes, but it didn’t breach again. We saw them surface out to the west. It was finally time to go home. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
12/20/22 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions It’s hard to believe but we actually saw a blue whale in late December! With the help of our great whale watching community, we went to an area just two miles off the San Diego coast where a blue whale was reported. We waited and waited until suddenly we saw the spout! Upon closer investigation, this blue whale looked very healthy. It was also a huge animal! We sailed alongside this animal for 5 miles and it took us out west to deeper waters. We finally had to say goodbye. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
12/19/22 Submarines, Helicopters, Sea Lions, Quiet Animal Day Although the weather was sunny and the ocean was flat, it was a quiet day on the water. We saw a lot of cool military activity with helicopters. However, we did not see any sea life except for sea lions on the bait barges. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free any time in the future. Days like today remind us that we are searching for wild animals that sometimes hide from us. We are eagerly looking forward to tomorrow!
12/18/22 Gray Whale, Megapod Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Captain Troy headed north and found a single southbound gray whale. We were only two miles off the coast. We followed this whale for several cycles. Then, we saw a lot of birds and some splashing out to the west. Captain Troy decided to sail out and we found a huge megapod of dolphins. The water was so glassy with incredible visibility, you could see 30 feet down. We were able to get some great photos and video. Be sure to check out our Instagram and Facebook: @nxtlevelsailing. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
12/17/22 5 Humpback Whales, Common Dolphins, Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Sea Lions What a day! The ocean was flat but it was quite cold. Everyone was happy that they had a jacket, hat, and gloves. We went 11 miles off the coast today and found a bait ball full of activity. Humpback whales were feeding, along with two different types of dolphins. There were birds and sea lions as well! We closely watched a group of three humpback whales and saw two additional humpback whales a little bit further away. Everyone had a wonderful time. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
12/16/22 2 Gray Whales, Offshore Bottlenose, Navy Dolphins, F18’s, Sea Lions We headed out to sea and found a stunning pair of gray whales. It was a cow and her yearling calf headed south to Mexico. Both whales looked very healthy. We were about 2 miles off the coast cruising at 5 knots. As we watched the whales, a cow and calf offshore bottlenose pair popped up. They were incredibly cute! They swam right in front of the boat. To the crew, it looked like the cow was nursing her calf. We will post our video to our YouTube Channel, Next Level Sailing. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
12/15/22 Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Sea Lions It was a quiet day on the ocean today, but absolutely stunning. The ocean was flat, which makes for a wonderful and relaxing day at sea. Keep in mind, it is chilly and windy. Everyone was happy that they brought jackets, hats, and gloves. We found some Pacific White Sided Dolphins, but the whales eluded all the whale watching operators today. Everyone on today’s trip gets to come back for free any time, no expiration date. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
12/10/22 2 Humpback Whales, Megapod Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a spectacular day! We headed out west on calm flat water. It is hard to believe that there will be a storm in the same waters tomorrow. With the help of our great whale watching community, we found two southbound humpback whales. In the distance, Fathom spotted a huge pod of common dolphins swimming right towards us. These dolphins formed a big line and they just stampeded right past us and the whales. We continued to follow the whales south and we even got to see both put up their tails. How fantastic! We can’t wait to see you on Thursday.
12/9/22 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, USS Tripoli (LHA 7) Gray whale season has officially started! The weather was spectacular with gorgeous flat water and sunny skies. It is still very cold with highs of 61 degrees Fahrenheit. We were headed out to 9 mile bank when crew member Konner spotted a spout! He told Troy he was 100% sure it was a spout. Sure enough, upon closer investigation, it was a small spout. As we carefully approached, we found it was a juvenile gray whale that was 25 ft long. We were only in 110 ft of water, but it took deep dives so we saw it’s flukes often. It was so cute! About 2 miles away, we spotted a much larger spout. We headed over there and found it was a very large adult gray whale. This whale swam right next to the boat and we sailed with this whale for over an hour. It just snorkeled under the surface and came up to breath every couple minutes. After a ton of great views, we headed home. On the way, we got to see the USS Tripoli (LHA 7) come into the San Diego bay. It was awesome! We can’t wait until tomorrow!
12/8/22 3 Humpback Whales, Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Sea Lions, Birds It was one of those fantastic National Georgraphic days today! Diana saw a spout and upon a closer look, we found a group of three humpbacks. They split up into a group of two and a single. As we followed them, the single whale breached! Diana also saw an additional two spouts to the south, making a total of 5 humpback whales. Swimming alongside the whales were Pacific white sided dolphins, and sea lions. Everyone was feasting, including the birds. What a day. We can’t wait to sail tomorrow!
12/6/22 Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, Submarines, F18’s Today was a reminder that we sail in a big ocean. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any wild dolphins or whales. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free at any time, no expiration date. However, it was still a gorgeous day on the water. We can’t wait for Thursday!
12/5/22 3 Humpback Whales, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Just another fantastic day aboard the yacht America! Captain Troy sailed out to 9 mile bank when Diana suddenly said, “Spout! 100%” She was sure that she saw a spout and sure enough, she ended up finding a fabulous group of three humpback whales. There were two adults and one small calf. Guests were able to see tail flukes from all three whales. We also saw a fast moving group of three hundred common dolphins. The dolphins stopped and played with the whales, and then proceded to stampede north. We sailed with them for a brief period, but went back to follow the whales. There were a lot of birds, sea lions, and some scattered dolphins with the whales. The whales headed south towards Mexico. The adults looked like they had a great summer feeding as they were  very wide. The calf was so cute. It’s flukes looked so small compared to the flukes of the adults. After watching the trio for a long time, it was time to go home. As soon as we turned, one whale breached just four boat lengths away! It was such a surprise. We stayed but it didn’t breach again. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
12/4/22 8 Humpback Whales, Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Sea Lions What a beautiful day! It is chilly on the water, but the sea state is very calm. We headed out west and then south towards the Los Coronados. It was so quiet on the ocean, except for some sea birds. Just when we were about to turn around, Fathom yelled “Spout!” Sure enough, we found two humpback whale spouts. Upon a closer look, it turned out to be a cow and a calf. We even got to see a tail fluke from the calf. It was so cute and small! After sharing our location with other whale watchers, they found another pair of humpback whales. Captain Troy saw another pair in the distance, then a single several miles to the south. Fathom saw another single several miles up to the north breach twice! It was humpback whale heaven. The cow and calf headed towards a bait ball with Pacific white sided dolphins. It was so cool to watch them feed. We were super late, so we headed for home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
12/3/22 200 Common Dolphins, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, USS Carl Vinson, Hot Rum Race Today was a humble reminder that we look for whales in a BIG ocean. Whales are wild animals and sometimes, they just don’t want to say hi to us. We headed out to sea and the conditions was beautiful. The seas were calm and the visibility was great. We searched and searched, but didn’t find any spouts. Thanks to the help of our great whale watching community, another group found a fabulous group of active dolphins. We sailed with this group for quite some time. It was such a blast for kids and adults alike. We also had great views of the USS Carl Vinson as it headed out to sea and we found ourselves right in the middle of the San Diego Hot Rum Race. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free, no expiration date.
12/2/22 2 Humpback Whales, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions December is turning out to be a fantastic month! We headed out west and immediately came across a very active pod of northbound common dolphins. We followed them and everyone watched them stampede right next to us. It was amazing! We then headed south and found a pair of humpback whales. They were slowly traveling south. It was time to head for home so we turned around. Several miles away, we saw two different humpback whales breach at the same time. We have never seen a double breach. How incredible! We can’t wait for tomorrow.
12/1/22 2 Humpback Whales, 500 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, Navy SEALS. What a day! We are officially 100% for the month of December. First, the ocean conditions were incredible. The water was as calm as a lake and we could see for miles. We headed out west and a guest suddenly called out. Fathom quickly looked and sure enough, we found two southbound humpback whales. Captain Troy followed these whales and everyone was able to get wonderful views of these magnificent animals. While we watched these animals, we saw a C130 circling close by. Suddenly, we saw the Navy SEALS jumping out of the plane. Then, about 500 dolphins starting swimming north, towards us. Where to point the camera?! It was super action packed. Then another group of Navy SEALS jumped out of the plane. We watched as their parachutes touched the water. Captain Troy decided to follow the dolphins north and the kids aboard were especially delighted. The dolphins jumped right next to the boat, showing off their newborn calves. What a great way to start off the month. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
11/28/22 Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The ocean was beautiful and flat, but it was a quiet day for sea life. The visibility was fantastic, we could see all the way up to Orange County and the San Gorgonio Mountain. While we didn’t find whales, we did see the navy training their bottlenose dolphins. We also saw the submarine base and a LA Class Attack Submarine in dry dock. Everyone who sailed on this day will be able to come back for a free trip, no expiration date!
11/27/22 12 Humpback Whales, 800 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an incredible day! It looks like humans were not the only ones feasting during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. With the help of our wonderful whale watching community, we were able to sail with a dozen humpback whales that were actively feeding. There was a huge feeding frenzy with dolphins, whales, birds, and even sea lions. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow.
11/16/22 50 Offshore Bottlenose, 300 Common Dolphins, LCAC’s While we didn’t see whales, it was a gorgeous day on the water. We saw a big pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins out at 9 mile bank. On our way in, we found 300 common dolphins headed out west. The sun was out and the ocean was as flat as a lake. Everyone had a wonderful time. We even saw some LCAC’s zooming around (Landing Craft Air Cushion). We look forward to seeing you this weekend!
11/14/22 3 Humpback Whales, Megapod Dolphins What a day! The sun was out, the ocean was flat, and we saw so many animals. Captain Troy headed out to sea and found a group of three humpback whales: cow, juvenile, and escort. What a sight. All three were heading south down to Mexico. The little blow from the juvenile was so cute. We saw the flukes of the cow and the escort, but the juvenile never showed us its tail. That said, we did see its cute little dorsal fin. Off in the distance, we saw splashes from a ton of dolphins. Captain Troy headed toward them. Lo and behold, we found ourselves a megapod of dolphins! We sailed through dolphins for at least a half hour as we headed towards Point Loma. It was incredible. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
11/13/22 2 Humpback Whales Just in the glare, Diana was able to spot two more southbond humpback whales. The ocean was very calm and the sun was out. Don’t let that fool you, it is still chilly on the water. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
11/12/22 2 Humpback Whales Yay! We were so excited to see two humpback whales today. First, Captain Troy just saw one whale. We followed it for quite some time, then a second whale popped up.  Everyone got really great close views. The pair was traveling south. We can’t wait to find some more tomorrow.
11/10/22 Megapod Dolphins, Sea Lions, Submarines, Snow! It was a very chilly but sunny day on the water today. Everyone was bundled up with jackets, warm socks, and hats. The storm made the visibility incredible today. We were so excited to see a megapod of common dolphins. They were scattered over two miles. They were all swimming in a straight line and we just sailed up and down the line. It was amazing to see so many dolphins working together. We could see a beautiful layer of snow way up at Mt. Gregornio. It is officially winter here in San Diego.
11/7/22 Sea Lions, Submarines Unfortunately we did not see any whales today. It was a beautiful day on the water, but no whales. Tomorrow is going to have rain, so we are cancelling tomorrow’s trip. We look forward to seeing you later in the week!
11/6/22 2 Humpback Whales, Sea Lions The weather has been very cold and rainy the past week. There was a small craft advisory for serveral days, so we unfortunately had to cancel a couple trips. We were very happy to get back out on the water today. We found a wonderful pair of southbound humpback whales. At one point they came very close to the boat. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
10/29/22 4 Humpback Whales, Sea Lions The  oceans have been so calm and the sun was out. We were so excited to see 4 beautiful humpback whales. They were traveling very close together. To hear all of them breathing at the same time was magnificent. We can’t wait until our next trip!
10/28/22 9 Humpback Whales, Sea Lions Today was truly spectacular. We heard about humpback whales before we even left our dock. There were five separate groups of humpback whales that were reported as soon as we got out into the ocean. We spotted a group of two humpback whales that got super close to the boat. Then we saw another pair of humpback whales. We learned about a large group of five whales, so we headed to that area. Interestingly enough, this large group was only 1 mile off the coast. We watched in awe as we sailed alongside. Some of them showed us a lot of their body as they came up for air and took deep dives. The water was exceptionally flat and the sun was out. We can’t wait for tomorrow.
10/26/22 2 Humpack Whales, Common Dolphins The sun was out, but the seas were not calm. There was a 4 ft swell with long periods between each wave. The whales did not disappoint. As soon as we sailed out, we found a beautiful pair of humpback whales. They showed us their gorgeous flukes. Just like all the other humpback whales, these two were traveling south. We can’t wait to see you on Friday!
10/22/22 2 Humpback Whales The seas have been beautifully calm. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we found humpback whales! This pair was wonderful and everyone was able to get great views. We can’t wait to see you next time!
10/21/22 5 Humpback Whales, Common Dolphins, Submarine We sailed out to the bank and found a good pod of 50 common dolphins. While we sailed back, a guest spotted several spouts! We made a turn and sure enough, we found 5 southbound humpback whales. We also saw a submarine as well. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
10/20/22 1 Juvenile Humpback Whale, Dolphins, Submarine We found an adorable juvenile humpback whale that was traveling south just outside of the kelp forest. We watched as it breathed while traveling south. Captain Troy saw dolphins in the distance, so we went to check them out. There were about 200 common dolphins. We also followed a submarine all the way back into San Diego. It was an action packed day!
10/19/22 5 Humpback Whales There is a fantastic whale watching community here in San Diego. One of our fellow whale watchers found a wonderful group of 5 humpback whales just a couple miles off the San Diego coast. We headed right to them and sailed with them for a long time. It was truly magical to hear all of them taking deep breaths! We can’t wait for tomorrow.
8/25/22 4 Minke Whales, Offshore Bottlenose, Elephant Seal,  Sea Lions The past few days have been been quiet on the mammal side, but we have seen hundreds and hundreds of tuna! At one point, we even counted 32 fishing boats in just 1 square mile. Everywhere we looked, there were tuna. Today, we were thrilled to finally find some mammals. We saw a total of 4 minke whales and a group of 20 offshore bottlenose dolphins. Shockingly,  we also saw an elephant seal today. It was quite a surprise as we never see them down here. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
8/17/22 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We haven’t spotted blue whales for a few days. Captain Troy and Diana heard reports of a blue whale up to the north and decided to go for it. Luckily this whale was traveling south. We were able to follow this whale south, guests were able to get incredible views. We are eager to find more migrating blue whales in the next few weeks!
8/16/22 Common Dolphins, Tuna, Bait Balls, Sea Lions There is a lot of tuna out in the water! We headed out west and found at least 7 different bait balls with tuna jumping out of the water. From afar, they almost looked like splashes from dolphins. If I was a humpback whale, I would be here! Despite all our efforts, we didn’t see any whales. Hopefully they will come back tomorrow!
8/12/22 Common Dolphins, Coast Guard Special Forces, Sea Lions The weather has been spectacular. It is very warm on land, rising up to 80 degrees with 70% humidity. The humidity is very unusual for San Diego, but we are loving these sunny days on the ocean.  While we didn’t see whales today, we did find common dolphins and sea lions. We also saw an impressive view of Coast Guard Special Forces. They zoomed past the guests in their speedy boat, it was super cool!
8/11/22 Sea Lions & Navy Dolphins Although it is rare, sometimes we don’t see whales or wild dolphins during our trips in the summer. Unfortunately, this happened today. It was a gorgeous day out on the water with beautiful sunny skies and blue water. That said, we couldn’t see a dolphin or whale for miles. Hopefully the wildlife will return to these waters tomorrow. Everyone aboard today’s trip will get to come back for free anytime!
8/10/22 Cow & Calf Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Seeing a blue whale cow and calf late in the summer is such a contrast to early spring. The calf has grown considerably in size and weight. It still stays right with its mom for dives, but we were amazed to this beautiful sight. We also passed through three huge separate pods of common dolphins. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
8/9/22 3 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions There must be a lot of food in the water. For five days straight, we have been getting fantastic views of these beautiful animals. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
8/8/22 7 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Another fantastic day on the water. We are just so excited to see blue whales day after day in our San Diego waters!
8/7/22 7 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It looks like these blue whales are here to stay for a while. The weather has been absolutely stunning, with beautiful blue skies and calm waters. Guests have been having the best time spotting these whales and getting great pictures. Be sure to check our social media, @nxtlevelsailing and @wagsnwhales for pictures and videos of the latest sightings.
8/6/22 4 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Captain Troy sailed to the same spot as yesterday. Sure enough, we found blue whales. One fluked several times, everyone was amazed by it’s beautiful tail. We feel so lucky to see these blue whales again this summer. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
8/5/22 7 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We went down to 9 mile bank and were so ecstatic to find 7 blue whales! There was even a cow and her calf. Everyone was so excited, it was incredible to be surrounded by spouts once again. We hope that these animals stay for awhile. There have been a lot of dolphins in these waters, so there must be an abundance for food. We look forward to sailing tomorrow!
8/3/22 2 Bryde’s Whales, LA Class Submarine, Sea Lions The weather was gorgeous. We headed out to the bank and found the same pair of Bryde’s whales! They were actively feeding and moving very quickly. With just a fluke print as a clue, Captain Troy quickly turned the boat so everyone had great views when the whale popped up again. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
7/25/22 2 Bryde’s Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, Diesel Electric Submarine Captain Troy headed down to the Coronado Islands. Suddenly, he saw a spout. It was a Bryde’s whale. Then we saw another whale close by. These whales were moving very quickly, feeding in the area. We were able to get some great views thanks to Captain Troy’s excellent steering. We can’t wait to see you on Wednesday!
7/24/22 Blue Whale Cow & Calf, Dolphins, Sea Lions We haven’t seen blue whales for several days. We were do excited to see this adorable pair. There is a lot of food in the water, we can’t wait for tomorrow!
7/11/22 2 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We were so excited to find a blue whale cow and calf! We have not seen a mom and baby in a few weeks here in San Diego, so it was fantastic to see this pair. The baby swam right next to it’s mom. At one point, their pair was very curious about our boat and we were able to get such a close look. We are so excited for tomorrow!
7/10/22 1 Minke Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions No other whale watching boats were able to find a whale today. Captain Troy saw a bait ball and headed over to investigate. There were a ton of sea birds, dolphins, and fish. All of a sudden, he saw a spout! It was a minke whale. It was awesome to see this whale feeding in the middle of a bait ball. We are excited tomorrow!
7/9/11 800 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions While we didn’t find a whale today, guests were able to see three separate amazing pods of common dolphins. The sun was out and it was a gorgeous day. Everyone on this trip gets to come back for free. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
7/8/22 2 Blue Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins We headed out to 9 mile bank again and spotted two blue whales! At first it looked like we just saw one, but then the pair came up right next to one another. These were two big adult blue whales. It was fantastic to watching them swim right alongside one another. We are glad that they are feeding on all the food in these waters. We didn’t see wild dolphins today, but the Navy dolphins showed off when we were in the bay. We are looking forward to tomorrow!
7/7/22 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It looks like the same whale was out today as yesterday. We even saw more flukes and some whale poop. It was a little overcast in the morning, but the sun found its way through the clouds. It turned out to be a gorgeous afternoon. We also saw some dolphins in the mix as well. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
7/6/22 1 Blue Whale, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The sun was out and it was a beautiful blue bird day. We even had a cute VIP guest named Max. He was an adorable English Sheepdog puppy. We spotted a wonderful blue whale that fluked several times. Everyone was thrilled to see this massive tail! Be sure to check out our TikTok for videos: @wagsnwhales. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
7/5/22 1 Blue Whale, 200 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions The seas are not flat, but they definitely calmed down since Sunday. We were so excited to find a magnificent blue whale that swam close to the boat. It fluked three separate times, everyone was able to get amazing views of it’s beautiful tail. We even saw whale poop on the last look! On our way back, we saw several bait balls with common dolphins. There is a lot of food in the water. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
7/3/22 Agitated Seas Most whale watching days in summer months are calm and sunny.  Today, the actual sea state was not as predicted. We experienced 5 foot swells at 7 seconds. It made our progress very slow out to the ocean and we were not able to get to 9 mile bank. This day was certainly not a good example of the whale watching trips that we like to provide. Everyone on this trip can come back for free. For any questions, they can also contact Fathom: [email protected] or 619-922-6215. Thanks!
7/2/22 2 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We are excited to celebrate this July 4th weekend with our guests. The weather was absolutely stunning today and there was an abundance of wildlife. There were just so many birds on our way out to the 9 mile bank today. We found two blue whales that dove under the surface for about 11 minutes. Captain Troy did a fantastic job steering the yacht America. These whales decided to come up close the boat, allowing guests to get an incredible view. It is just so exciting to see blue whales in San Diego in July. We are looking forward to a great month. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
7/1/22 1 Blue Whale, 900 Common dolphins, Sea Lions There was a lot of food in the water today. Everywhere we looked, we saw bait balls with dolphins. We were able to get close to at least three separate bait balls with tons of dolphins. We also found a magnificent blue whale. We had three cycles with this whale and it fluked for all three deep dives. It was amazing to see this beautiful animal on such a gorgeous day. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/30/22 2 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Such gorgeous weather! We sailed out and found two blue whales at 9 mile bank. These were two adults that were feeding. They were down for about 12 minutes. One showed us its fluke, which was very exciting. We can’t wait to go sailing tomorrow!
6/29/22 3 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It has been so hot on land the past few days. We had the most beautiful weather on the water today. Captain Troy headed straight out to the bank and found three blue whales. It was so cool to watch the largest animal on the planet gracefully swim through the water. We can’t wait for tomorrow.
6/28/22 2 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Another sunny day here in San Diego. With the help of our fellow whale watchers, we found a friendly group of 2 blue whales. One was pretty curious about our vessel. Guests were able to get great views. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
6/27/22 Submarines, Sea Lions Today unfortunately was a no whale day. Fathom went up the mast for a long time looking for whales and dolphins. Although the visibility was great and the weather was warm and sunny, there were no mammals in the ocean. Today was just a reminder that we are searching for wild animals, and we are always very lucky when we see them in their natural habitat. Everyone on this trip can come back for a free future trip. We look forward to tomorrow!
6/26/22 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions The winds picked up today, but the sun was out and the seas were flat. We headed out and found the same blue whale that we saw yesterday. It was in the same spot. This whale decided to show off and fluke three separate times. It was so cool to see this huge tail as the whale took a dive. We can’t wait for tomorrow.
6/25/22 1 Blue Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Another sunny gorgeous day in San Diego. We found a single blue whale out in the canyon. This whale took a beautiful dive and showed us his flukes. Everyone cheered, it was so exciting to see such a beautiful sight. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/24/22 2 Blue Whales,  Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was an unbelievable day! We had the most friendly blue whale we have ever encountered. This whale swam right towards us and did circles around our boat. Captain Troy just put the boat in neutral and this whale was very curious about us. Everyone had some amazingly close views. It was incredible! We can’t wait for tomorrow.
6/16/22 1 Blue Whale, 300 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We headed south today to find a magnificent blue whale! This blue whale was the same whale that we saw a few days ago. It has 3 very distinct scratches on its dorsal fin. At one point, this whale popped up right behind us. Captain Troy immediately put the boat in neutral, guests watched in awe as this whale breathed a few times and took a deep dive. We even got to see it’s tail. What an amazing experience. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/15/22 400 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions There were reports of Blue Whales off of La Jolla yesterday, so we headed up that way to see if we could find them. Unfortunately, we did not find whales. However, we were able to get amazing views of a large active pod of common dolphins. There is still a lot of food in the water. We look forward to tomorrow!
6/14/22 100 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Over night, the sea state became much rougher than predicted, but it was still safe. Captain Troy told everyone at check in that the seas were higher than expected, so if anyone was prone to seasickness, today would not be a good day. He refunded anyone that wanted a refund. We also rescheduled guests who wanted to go later in the week. About 20 guests still wanted to go sailing, so we headed out to sea. Despite large swells, the seas were safe. We were able to find a nice pod of common dolphins, but unfortunately no whales. Everyone will be be able to come back for free to fulfill their whale watching guarantee.
6/12/22 5 Blue Whales, Mako Shark, Common Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins What a day! We had very close views of three blue whales. We could see two more blue whales a mile to the west and a mile to the south of us. We also saw a mako shark jump out of the water two times. That was crazy to see! We also found two different pods of dolphins: common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. We will not be whale watching tomorrow, but we can’t wait to see you on Tuesday.
6/11/22 5 Blue Whales, Megapod Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Everyone was so lucky to get to be able to see two pairs of blue whale cows and calves. Both calves looked very healthy and they swam right next to their mothers. One of the calves even breached a few feet above the surface. It was so playful! We also saw the same blue whale that we saw yesterday. It had three distinct marks on it’s dorsal fin, very striking. All five blue whales were swimming in very close proximity. We also had a megapod of common dolphins swimming to the southeast of us. We asked our guests if it was okay if we were late, everyone said lets go for it! We sailed with this amazing group of active dolphins for 15 minutes. There were so many cute baby dolphins in the mix. We can’t wait until tomorrow.
6/10/22 1 Blue Whale, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins “May gray, June gloom” is not just a phrase, it’s reality here in San Diego. Don’t forget to bring your sweatshirt because it is chilly on the water with this thick marine layer. That doesn’t stop the whales. Today, we found a single blue whale that was just 8 miles from San Diego. It had three distinct lines on its dorsal fins. We also saw blows from two other whales three miles away. Guests were able to get very close views. This whale did show us its tail, but it was just a few feet above the ocean’s surface. We can’t wait to come back tomorrow!
6/9/22 4 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins, Sea Lions It is blue whale watching season! Every day, we are seeing blue whales off the coast. We are so excited that they are staying here, feeding on the abundance of krill in the water. We can’t wait to take you whale watching tomorrow!
6/8/22 4 Blue Whales, 800 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today we had close views of several blue whales. We did see one that had an almost non-existent dorsal fin. I took several videos of this whale in order to send to NOAA. Despite it’s dorsal fin, this whale looked very healthy. After spending some great time with the blue whales, we saw stampeding common dolphins in the distance. We checked to see if everyone was okay if we were a little late. After we received approval from the guests, we headed over and were completely surrounded by a huge group of common dolphins. There were some adorable calves that were just learning how to swim. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
6/7/22 5 Blue Whales, Sea Lions Guests were able to see blue whale flukes today! We had a single blue whale that loved to show us it’s magnificent tail. Now, this was not Bubbles, the blue whale, but it was another blue whale. It was just amazing to see this huge tail as this whale took an 11 minute dive.
6/6/22 4 Blue Whales, Sea Lions Today we found the cow and calf right away. Captain Troy decided to stay with these two the whole trip. Every day we see the calf, we notice something new. Today, this calf was diving exactly like it’s mom. We even saw both dorsal fins at the exact same time. It has been so cool to see this progression with each trip. As this calf learns how to feed on krill, we expect to watch it grow pretty substantially this summer.
6/5/22 7 Blue Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a spectacular day! We had representatives from NOAA join us to see just how many blue whales are in the area. The marine layer quickly burned off this morning and the ocean was very calm. We found a group of 7 blue whales, including our favorite cow and calf. The NOAA representatives were so happy to see such healthy work. All of our collaborative efforts with NOAA and the Navy are paying off. Ships are avoiding this feeding ground and they are not performing live fire exercises in the area. We are very excited to watch these whales for the whole summer!
6/4/22 Minke Whale It was a little overcast today. We headed South West to 9 mile bank. There was a pretty big rain cloud looming overhead, so Captain Troy decided to turn south. This way, everyone avoided getting soaked. We didn’t see any spouts in the distance, so we decided to head for home. We passed a car carrier, and then Diana suddenly saw a spout. We got closer and it was a minke whale! We also saw offshore bottlenose swimming with the minke. We stayed with this whale and the dolphins for as long as we could. It was finally time to get back as we were an hour late. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
6/3/22 1 Blue Whale, Offshore Bottlenose, Sea Lions The weather is getting warmer and warmer with the seas getting calmer and calmer. We heard reports of a whale just west of Point Loma about 10 miles offshore. We headed out and found a spectacular blue whale. Although this was not Bubbles, this whale did like to show us it’s flukes with every deep dive. Guests were incredibly lucky to see this magnificent creature up close. Typically, it spent about 10 minutes under water and then came up for many surface breaths. Everyone had great views. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
6/2/22 4 Blue Whales, 1 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a spectacular day on the water. It was so calm. It was a little overcast in the morning, but burned off throughout the day. We were thrilled to find the blue whale cow and calf! They were so cute, swimming right next to eachother. We also saw Bubbles the blue whale close by as well. All of sudden, we were also right next to a fin whale that was very curious about the boat. All in all, what a wonderful day on the water. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
5/31/22 20 Blue Whales, 3 Fin Whales, 200 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It really doesn’t get any better than this. Captain Troy even said he has never seen so many blue whales in one area. There were 20 blue whales! Everywhere we looked, we saw spouts. Some were close by, some were in the distance. We were in the canyon, 9 miles from Point Loma. Crew and guests were absolutely delighted when we also saw a blue whale cow and calf! It is so exciting to see a calf of an endangered species, particularly a blue whale. It looked very healthy as it was nursing and learning how to feed on krill. At one point, we had a whale on either side of us and Captain Troy just sailed in neutral. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience for everyone aboard. We are so excited to see so many blue whales in one spot. Let’s hope they stick around for a few weeks. Captain Troy notified the Navy and NOAA about the location of Blue Whales so they can make sure ships stay clear of this area.
5/30/22 2 Blue Whales, 4 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions The sun was shining today, it was so warm on the water. We had incredible views of two different blue whales. Bubbles, the blue whale, is still in the area and showed an incredible tail fluke for guests today. We also saw fin whales feeding within a 1/4 mile of the blue whales. It was truly spectacular. There were also about 30 common dolphins that swam with us for a short period as well. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
5/29/22 2 Blue Whales, 6 Fin Whales, 200 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We headed out to the 9 mile bank again today. There were so many whales, it was hard to know where to look. At one point, we had two fin whales on either side of us. Guests watched as dolphins swam with the whales. It was incredible. We are so excited to sail again tomorrow. See you then!
5/28/22 10 Fin Whales, 1 Blue Whale, Sea Lions, Common Dolphins The winds picked up today, but the sun was out. We headed to the same area we went to yesterday and found the same amazing pod of fin whales and blue whale. Everywhere we looked we saw spouts. Guests had super close views to a group of four fin whales that swam right next to the boat. It was incredible. We can’t wait to go whale watching tomorrow!
5/27/22 10 Fin Whales, 1 Blue Whale, 200 Common Dolphins This is a fantastic time to come whale watching in San Diego! We sailed 14.5 miles off the coast. The ocean was completely flat and the sun was out. Everywhere we looked, we saw whales. Guests had incredible views of fin whales and Bubbles, the blue whale. We can’t wait to go whale watching tomorrow.
5/24/22 4 Blue Whales, Risso’s Dolphins, LA-Class Submarine Today was an exquisite day! We headed out to 9 mile bank and saw a total of four blue whales. They were all feeding on krill, taking 10 minute dives. At one point, they were very curious about us and swam around the boat. It was truly an incredible experience. We started heading for home and much to our excitement, saw a pod of 50 Risso’s dolphins. This was a graet pod and a few of them even breached for us. Just as we were entering the San Diego Bay, we were able to witness an outbound submarine. We can’t wait to sail this weekend!
5/23/22 2 Blue Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins We were so excited to see not just one, but two huge blue whales feeding in our waters here in San Diego. We have been going to the canyon for the past couple days and have found dolphins. Today, however, we were so excited to find blue whales. One of the blue whales is named “Bubbles.” We have seen this whale in years past. It makes a distinct bubbles right before it takes a deep dive. It also fluked with each and every dive, delighting everyone aboard the yacht America. We can’t wait to go sailing tomorrow!
5/1/22 Fin Whale, Sea Lions It was a great way to kick off the new month with fantastic sights of a fin whale. We are very excited to see what the spring month brings!
4/30/22 Fin Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an amazing experience. We are seeing so many fin whales this week. We saw a fin whale today and a lot of common dolphins. Captain Troy notified NOAA about the abundance of fin whales in these waters so they can send scientists down to conduct research. He also notified the Navy so consider these feeding grounds when deciding how ships should enter the San Diego Bay. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
4/27/22 2 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today we saw a cow and calf ! They were such cute fin whales. The mom was showing her baby how to feed. This calf was smaller than the other calves we have seen the past few days. We are so excited to see more fin whale calves in our waters.
4/26/22 3 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It was so warm today on land. We started heading out to sea and we were met by a very thick fog. Captain Troy used the horn every two minutes to alert nearby boats. Once through the fog, it turned out to be a gorgeous day. We found three fin whales! A cow, calf, and another adult. We were so excited! We stayed with these animals and watched their fast behavior. The adults were actually lunge feeding, it was so cool to watch. They were moving very quickly and we were able to witness this at a very close but safe distance. We were an hour late to the dock but everyone had amazing views.
4/25/22 3 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions There were three fin whales today, except one was an adorable calf! It was incredible watching this small calf swim very close to it’s mom. The other adult kept a close distance to the mom and calf as well. It was a beautiful sunny day. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
4/21/22 2 Fin Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today we saw two huge adult fin whales. They were massive! These two swam right next to eachother. Listening to these whales breath is just amazing. They were also so close to the boat! Fathom was able to get some great video. Check out our instagam, @nxtlevelsailing.
4/15/22 Gray Whale Cow, Calf, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions A guest spotted a disturbance in the water. Low and behold, it was a small calf! We then saw the cow pop up right next to her calf. We were about 10 miles off the coast and watched in awe as this cow and calf made their way up to Alaska. There was a Navy ship three miles away doing standard operations. We notified this ship that we were with a cow and calf attempting to make their way up north to Alaska. After many transmissions between Captain Troy and Naval ship, they decided to make a distinct turn to the southwest so that it would stay clear of the cow and calf. Thank goodness! Whale collisions are a big problem around the world. We were so happy to help this cow and calf make a safe transit north. Good luck with the rest of your journey!
4/14/22 Risso’s Dolphins, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Although we didn’t find any whales, everyone had a fantastic experience watching a pod of 25 Risso’s Dolphins. We also saw a large pod of common dolphins that swam with the boat. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
4/5/22 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions We were absolutely shocked to fin two southbound gray whales today. They breached four times in the distance. This pair was very comfortable swimming alongside our boat. Everyone got great views. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
4/3/22 4 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins There was a group of four gray whales headed north. This was an incredible quad. They were pretty far out, 10 miles west from Point Loma. There was a lot of rolling involved, so these whales were definitely courting one last time before headed north to Alaska.
3/18/22 3 Fin Whales, Dolphins, Sea Lions We were so excited to see fin whales today! There was a mom, a calf, and an escorting male. It was an amazing experience for guests and crew alike. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
3/17/22 7 Gray Whales, 500 Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We had a very lucky day today since we found a group of seven northbound gray whales all swimming together. It was so cool to watch each one dive after one another. We were completely surround by common dolphins while we were watching the whales. We also saw another pod of dolphins close to shore. It is going to be a wonderful spring season!
3/16/22 Sunny Blue Skies, Sea Lions Even though the weather was spectacular, we were not lucky at finding sea life today. Unfortunately, we were shut out for the second day this year. Everyone will get to come back for free.
3/15/22 4 Gray Whales, Sea Lions It was a chilly morning. We headed out to sea and after traveling 12 miles, we found a group of northbound gray whales. They were wonderful whales! The marine layer burned off on our way back home.
3/14/22 1 Humpback Whale, 700 Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was a perfect day to eat! We headed out west and Fathom saw some splashing in the distance. Upon a closer look, we found a huge pod of common dolphins. Captain Troy kept saying there would be a whale close by. Sure enough, we spotted a single humpback whale feeding with the dolphins. It was an extraordinary experience for everyone. A bluebird day with lots of activity. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
3/12/22 4 Gray Whales, Risso’s, Sea Lions We headed out west to the bank and round a group of 30 Risso’s dolphins. There were several calves in the mix. They were so cute and small! We headed back towards shore to see what else we could find and we came across a group of four northbound gray whales. These whales were only four miles from shore, so we stayed with them for a long time and headed back. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
3/11/22 12 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What a whale of a day! We spotted Junior just off of Point Loma at the beginning of our trip. We stayed with him for a couple cycles and then we headed out west. We went all the way to 9 mile bank and found a fantastic group of four northbound gray whales. They were wonderful whales, very friendly. We also had a large group 100 common dolphins come play with the whales. Guests really wanted to watch these whales for a while, so we stayed, even though it would make us late. We headed back for home and were spoiled with so many whale spouts. We passed by a group of three, another group of three, and a single. A stampeding group of common dolphins also came towards us too. Although we were 45 minutes late to the dock, it was action packed. Guests had great views. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
3/10/22 1 Gray Whale, False Killer Whales, Sea Lions Junior is back! He was just off of Point Loma again, so everyone was very excited to see him. We sailed out west to see what else we could find. Low and behold, we spotted a pod of False Killer Whales. One of them even breached completely out of the water three times, right next to the boat! It was so cool to see these animals right next to the boat. We can’t wait until tomorrow.
3/9/22 Risso’s Dolphins, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions, LCS, Zumwalt This was the very first day of 2022 where we did not see any whales. We did find a group of 20 Risso’s dolphins, which were pretty cool to watch. Fathom went up the mast to search for whales and despite being up there for over an hour and half, she didn’t see a single whale spout. All the crew were so disappointed that we couldn’t find any whales. Everyone from this trip will be able to come back in the future anytime for a free trip. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
3/8/22 6 Humpback Whales, 1 Fin Whale, 700 Common Dolphins, spouts of 2 Gray Whales Today was truly an extraordinary day. We heard about a feeding frenzy off to the north west from our fellow whale watching boats. We knew that going up there would cause us to be an hour and a half late. We consulted with all the passengers aboard and everyone agreed that it was worth being late. Once we made it 11 miles from Point Loma, we were amazed by an abundance of whales, 500 dolphins, and sea birds. Everyone was actively feeding. It was the first time we saw humpback whales and a fin whale this year. We are so excited to see so much food in the water! On our way back home, we saw another large group of 200 dolphins stampeding. We also passed by spouts of two gray whales on our way back. Guests were able to get a quick look at the barnacles on the gray whales. There was so much diversity in the water today. This is one of the reasons we love whale watching in the spring. We can’t wait to see what we find tomorrow!
3/7/22 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Zumwalt, LCS We headed out and immediately found our little juvenile gray whale, Junior, off of Point Loma. Captain Troy headed out west after some great looks at Junior. We picked up another spout near the “whistling buoy” and sailed with this southbound gray whale for a long time. The winds started to pick up and trimmed the sails for speed. We headed home. During our trip, we saw the Zumwalt destroyer, a littoral combat ship, and a cable layer ship. It was an active day on the water, we look forward to tomorrow!
3/6/22 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions This past weekend, San Diego was hit by another storm. We had swells that went up to 9 feet with gusts reaching 30 knots. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our trips on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, the seas had calmed down enough so that we could go whale watching. We found two separate gray whales. One was Junior. He has been in that same spot off of Point Loma for 16 days now. It’s pretty amazing, I wonder if we will see him tomorrow!
3/3/22 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions A storm is brewing. We are constantly checking the weather, but it’s quite possible that tomorrow’s trip will need to be canceled. We had a nice trip today with some very good whales. Hopefully the storm will subside by Sunday so that guests can go sailing this weekend. Tie down the hatches and get ready for some rain!
3/1/22 4 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy March! We are so excited that it is March, time is really sailing by here on the yacht America. We decided to go offshore again. We found a group of three gray whales, but they were a little shy. They were originally traveling south, then they turned to the west, then they turned north. We are not too sure what they were doing, but we gave them plenty of room so we did not impede their path. We finally had to head for home. On our way back, we spotted Junior. It made us late getting back to the dock, but guests really wanted to see this whale up close. We were able to get some amazing views of Junior. He even took a deep dive and showed us his flukes. Hurrah! Everyone was very happy. We can’t wait to go sailing again.
2/28/22 6 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was our first day far off shore. We went way out to nine mile bank and found a large group of six gray whales. They were traveling very close together. All six would come up to breath at similar times, but they were swimming so close together. It was really amazing, particularly when they all took deep dives. Guests were having a wonderful time. Puppy Marie brought her friend, Cash, who is an adorable golden retriever. One of our youngest whale watchers loved petting Cash. At just four years old, she was worried about getting sea sick. With calm seas and some puppy kisses, she had the best time on the water!
2/27/22 1 Gray Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It was another calm day on the ocean! We headed out and found our friendly juvenile playing in the kelp. He was showing off, so we stayed and watched him for at least 45 minutes. We headed back and sailed with a pod of common dolphins. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
2/26/22 6 Gray Whales, White Sided Dolphins, Sea Lions Earlier this week, several trips were cancelled due to the storm passing through Southern California. With this in mind, we offered two trips. Both trips had wonderful sea conditions. The swell was very mild and the sun was out. The morning trip had virtually no wind, so the sea was calm and the weather was warm. Guests had amazing views of a large single southbound gray whale covered in barnacles. We stayed with this whale nearly the entire trip. The second trip had a stronger breeze, which was great for sailing. Always bring layers, because the wind is a little chilly. We ended up finding two pairs of gray whales and a single during the second trip. It was amazing to see whales and also see snow capped mountains from the ocean. We can’t wait to sail tomorrow!
2/24/22  4 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We headed out and immediately found a little juvenile gray whale playing in the kelp off the coast of Point Loma. After a few good looks, we headed further out and found a single southbound gray whale. We continued our journey south and found a pair of gray whales also headed south. It was time to head for home, so we turned around. There were a couple common dolphins that swam with us as we sailed home. Towards the end of the trip, the winds started to build to 13 knots. Throughout the trip, the sea was calmer than predicted at just 3 ft.
2/21/22 2 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins We set sail today for the last trip before the storm. Strong winds quickly carried the America to La Jolla where we encountered a trio of gray whales on their northbound migration. These whales have left the lagoons in Mexico early to have first access to the feeding grounds in Alaska. We saw the whale’s colorful flukes and backs covered in barnacles. Captain Troy saw a squall on the horizon, and we headed back to port just in time beat the rain. On the way back we saw some common dolphins that came to swim in the boats wake. More reports to come after the storm. Stay dry!
2/20/22 5 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Rescue! We had a very eventful day today with two trips, 5 whale sightings, and a rescue! We embarked from Shelter Island bright and early and set sail on beautiful, calm seas. Right as we rounded Point Loma we encountered 2 northbound juvenile gray whales playing in the kelp forest. After saying goodbye to these whales, we found a trio of gray whales on a late southbound migration down to Mexico. We saw birds on the horizon and Captain Troy headed over to find a pod of Pacific common dolphins feeding on delicious fish below the surface. Guests enjoyed views of the dolphins jumping completely out of the water! As we headed for home, we encountered a small boat taking on water in the mouth of the bay. One passenger was still in the boat and two were overboard. Thanks to quick action by Captain Troy and the crew, we were able to rescue all three people and their adorable dog and tow their boat to safety. If you want to see the entire rescue, check out this Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f77TZ5CmRME
2/19/22 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions As soon as we left the San Diego Bay, we spotted an adorable juvenile playing in the kelp off of Point Loma. We decided to continue our journey south and we found another single gray whale by the Coronado Islands. This whale was also headed south. The ocean was calm and it was beautiful and sunny. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/18/22 3 Mating Gray Whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, Sea Lions, USS Nimitz What a spectacular day! We headed out and immediately saw the USS Nimitz inbound for San Diego. She is not only the largest warship in the world, she is also the oldest. It was awesome to see her cruise past our yacht America. In the next few years, she will be decommissioned and replaced by a newer ship. It was a sunny day with a high of 67 degrees. The ocean was very flat and we found a group of three gray whales. We followed them for at least 40 minutes, then we checked out a bait ball full of Pacific white sided dolphins. The group of three gray whales then started to mate! We witnessed a lot of rolling and subsequent pectoral fins. What an special sight. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
2/17/22 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions Today, we had the pleasure of sailing with a family that wanted an exclusive private whale watching tour. With just four passengers, we set out and found a fantastic pair of southbound gray whales. It was a beautiful sunny day with flat seas. Our VIP guests enjoyed an exquisite lunch and sail back home to San Diego. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
2/16/22 1 Gray Whale, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins The heat wave is definitely over. We had one of the hottest weekends last weekends, but it rained all night here in San Diego. We actually cancelled Tuesday’s trip because of the storm. The ocean was a little bumpy with six foot swells. As the afternoon pressed on, the swells went down to just two feet. We found a very friendly gray whale that was headed north to Alaska. Guests enjoyed great views of this animal. Due to the small swell, we could see the entire body of this animal swimming under the water. That was really cool!
2/15/22 STORM- Closed With a storm coming in, we cancelled today’s trip.
2/14/22 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions What a perfect Valentines Day celebration! We enjoyed a fantastic sunny day with very calm seas. There were three southbound gray whales traveling very close together. The wind was just right that we even saw heart shaped blows. The sun was also perfect so everyone got to see rainbow spouts as well. It was the ultimate celebration. We can’t wait to see everyone later this week!
2/13/22 3 Gray Whales, Sea Lions We are still enjoying this heat wave, with highs in the 80’s. There were three very large southbound gray whales. Captain Troy sailed with these animals for at least an hour. Guests enjoyed fantastic views. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/12/22 2 Gray Whales, Minke, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was the hottest February day in San Diego history, with a high of 91 degrees. Guests enjoyed the most spectacular sunny day with calm flat seas. Diana found a juvenile northbound gray whale and then another single gray whale. She also found a minke whale as well! There were scattered common dolphins throughout the day. What an amazing Saturday, we can’t wait for tomorrow.
2/12/22 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The weather is starting to get very warm. It definitely feels like summer is already here! We found two beautiful southbound gray whales that were very friendly. Everyone saw spectacular dives as these animals showed us their flukes. The ocean was as flat as a lake. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/10/22 1 Gray Whale, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphin We headed out west and found a nice pod of dolphins. The weather was very hot, with a high of 83 degrees. After seeing the dolphins, we headed north to find a single southbound gray whale. It was super friendly, everyone got great views. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
2/9/22 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Common Dolphins BREACH! Today we saw a gray whale breach twice. It was a very playful adult. We also saw it spy hop several times. A guest was able to get a great video, it is posted on our instagram: @nxtlevelsailing. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/8/22 3 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Common Dolphins, Navy Dolphins We headed up north today and found another group of three gray whales. These animals did not swim in a straight line, but rather zig-zagged, and also sometimes swam north. That said, they were wonderful whales and guests were able to get great views. We headed south and found a large group of 300 common dolphins. Guests were so excited!
2/7/22 3 Gray Whales Mating, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions What an exciting day! Today we found three gray whales that happened to be mating. Captain Troy traveled south and found these active gray whales. Pectoral fins, flukes, and spy hopping, guests really got an incredible once in a lifetime experience. The weather has been very warm. We are looking forward to more sunny days this week!
2/6/22 3 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It was so sunny and warm today with a high of 72 degrees. The seas were as flat as a lake with hardly any wind. We headed out and found a pair of southbound gray whales.  Then we headed north an found a single gray whale. After a few views, we found a large group of 200 common dolphins. It was amazing to watch these beautiful animals under the water. The visibility was amazing. With flat water, the views were just gorgeous. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/5/22 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions What a spectacular day! We had amazing views of a pair of gray whales swimming south. Bring your family and friends for a fun filled day on the water. We even had some of our own friends come sail with us today and they had a great time.
2/4/22 6 Gray Whales, Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions We got to see the cutest gray whale playing today! It spy hopped several times and spun around in circles with the dolphins. We saw a pair in the distance and headed south to follow them for a few cycles. Then Captain Troy found spouts out to the west. We ended up finding a group of three gray whales heading north. These whales were moving very slowly, just 2 knots. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
2/3/2022 5 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions It was another gorgeous day out on the water today. We headed south and found the most amazing group of five gray whales. They were headed south and very friendly. Guests had amazing views of these majestic animals. We also saw a large nursery pod of 30  common dolphins.
2/2/2022 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions
Today was a gorgeous sunny day. We headed north and found a group of 3 southbound gray whales. We stayed with them for over an hour and watched as they gracefully swam together. It was a perfect day!
2/1/2022 4 Gray Whales, Sea Lions Guests were able to see two separate southbound gray whale pairs during their trip. It was fantastic to see these animals swimming along. We did have a reminder that we are still in winter here in San Diego as it was a little cloudy and chilly.
1/31/2022 2 Gray Whales, Pacific White Sides & Common Dolphins, Sea Lions
We had a fantastic pair of southbound gray whales today. There was also a huge bait ball with two different types of dolphins. Guests even saw sea lions feeding as well!
1/30/2022 2 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins
It’s hard to believe that it’s January, the sun is shining and the seas have been so calm. We sailed out and found a wonderful pair of southbound gray whales. This pair was traveling south and had consistent cycles. We also had some amazing views of the Navy dolphins as well. We can’t wait until tomorrow. Thanks!
1/29/2022 7 Gray Whales, Sea Lions
It was a little overcast today, but the clouds really made for beautiful dramatic pictures. The seas were calm and the winds were light. We sailed out and immediately found a pair of gray whales. Their cycles were only 3 minutes, so we had a lot of surface time. We sailed north to find another fantastic pair of gray whales. They were very comfortable with us, so guests were able to see all the barnacles. We learned about a group of three whales, so we went to check out this group. The water was so clear, we could see them swimming just under the surface. It was a spectacular day for whales. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/28/2022 4 Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins
Today was another great day on the ocean. We found a fantastic pair of gray whales and followed them for at least 45 minutes. Captain Troy heard about a cow and a calf, so we headed north and found this adorable pair. The calf was so cute and playful, everyone couldn’t believe how small it looked next to mom. Despite being small, the calf looked healthy and it was swimming very well. We wished them luck and headed for home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/23/22 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Another gorgeous day out here in San Diego. We saw snow capped mountains in the distance while sailing on calm waters. We found a social single gray whale today that stayed on the surface for a long times. Guests got wonderful views as they watched this beautiful animal. After sailing for a long time, we headed north. There was a group of two whales heading north. It’s a little early to see northbound gray whales, so these animals must be hungry. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/22/22 2 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Such a splendid January day. These Santa Ana winds have brought in some wonderful warm weather. Captain Mike did a great job finding a pair of gray whales and matching their pace as they swam south to Mexico. We stayed with them for a long time. Everyone got great views. We then saw some common dolphins so we went and they played with our boat. It was time to say goodbye to the whales so we headed for home. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/21/22 5 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins We were spoiled right at the beginning of the trip with some amazing Navy dolphins doing all sorts of tricks! Did you know the Navy trains dolphins for underwater protection? Super cool. It’s so fun when the trainers decide to show off. We headed south and found a wonderful pair of gray whales. After sailing with them for some time, we headed north and found a fabulous group of three gray whales. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/17/22 4 Gray Whales, Risso’s Dolphins, Common Dolphins Today was a spectacular whale watching day! The seas were flat and the sun was peaking out. Morgan found a single gray whale headed south for Mexico. This whale came up to breath several times and would be below the surface for 6 minutes at a time. After watching a couple cycles, we headed west because Fathom saw a good sized pod of common dolphins. They were so cute! They were feeding on a bait ball, so there were a bunch of birds as well. We sailed north and passed by another single gray whale, but we kept going north because it was a little crowded with other boats. Up north, we found a pair of gray whales that were also traveling south. They were absolutely stunning and came up right next to the boat. After staying with them for at least 20 minutes, we headed back. On our way, we found the same pod of at least 50 Risso’s Dolphins. They are so cool to see. They were just outside the kelp forest off of Point Loma and they were swimming very quickly to the north west. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/16/22 2 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions The ocean was completely different today. It was sunny and flat! You would never know we were in high winds the day before. There was a lot of kelp in the water from the tsunami the day before. Diana found a beautiful pair of gray whales. They were so friendly and came up close to the boat. We sailed with them for a long time and had some amazing views. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/15/22 6 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Sea lions What a day! The morning started with a tsunami warning where a volcano erupted over 5,000 miles away. Captain Troy has dealt with these scenarios before, so he skillfully knew exactly what that mean for us here in San Diego. We could see the water raise the dock 2 ft, but over the course of 7 minutes, so it was slow but strong. We had two whale watching trips that day. The morning trip was incredible with calm flat seas and a group of 4 beautiful gray whales. We followed them south and it was absolutely gorgeous. We also saw some common dolphins as well. There was a little rain in the morning, but everyone had their rain jackets and it cleared up in no time. The afternoon trip didn’t have any rain, so that was wonderful. We headed south to find the group of 4, but there were heavy winds that pick up. After chatting with our fellow whale watching boats, we headed north. Amazingly, the seas were completely calm with no wind up north. We found a group of 2 whales that were very friendly. The trip ended with a stunning sunset and the most beautiful rainbows. It was a very action packed trip to say the least. All in all, it was a wonderful day!
1/14/22 9 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Everywhere we looked, we saw gray whales. It was a whale of a time whale watching here in San Diego!
1/13/22 2 Gray Whales, Risso’s Dolphins. Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was absolutely spectacular! The seas were calm. Dogs Marie and Baxter had a great time whale watching today. They found 2 gray whales for us! We also saw some beautiful common dolphins. Captain Troy saw a big splash! Low and behold, we found the biggest pod of Risso’s Dolphins we have ever seen. They decided to swim east, right towards Point Loma. We sailed with them for at least an hour and watched in awe as they swam alongside. It was truly a joy to see them. There were probably at least 75 – 100 Risso’s all together. We even saw some calves in the mix as well. We can’t wait for tomorrow.
1/11/22 7 Gray Whales (Cow & Calf included), Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Guests jumped aboard the Yacht America for the ultimate San Diego whale watching excursion today. The skies were clear and sunny, and the seas were calm. Captain Troy found a pair of southbound gray whales. The wind was just perfect so we could even see heart shaped blows. There were another two gray whales spotted several miles away in Mexican waters. We sailed north to see what else we could find. We were so excited to find a gray whale cow and calf! This cow and calf were so cute, the calf even become very playful. Check out our Youtube channel, Next Level Sailing, to see some great footage of this incredible experience. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
1/9/22 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Today Captain Troy found a group of three whales. Since there were three whales, we can call it a pod. Since everyone was filming, Captain Troy said that it was a “San Diego Pod-Cast!” That got a good laugh. This weather has been wonderful. We will not be whale watching tomorrow, but we can’t wait to see you on Tuesday. Thank you!
1/8/22 2 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Pacific White Sided Dolphins We started off the weekend with a splash! Captain Troy found a pair of southbound gray whales. We also found common dolphins and Pacific white sided dolphins. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
1/7/22 3 Gray Whales, Sea Lions, Navy Dolphins It was a little overcast today, but we had a wonderful day whale watching. We headed out and found three gray whales heading south for Mexico. These whales were very comfortable with us and we stayed with them for a long time. First one gray would always come up to breath a minute before the other two would surface. We also saw some beautiful heart shaped blows. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/5/22 2 Gray Whales, Scattered Common Dolphins, Sea lions We had another sunny day here in San Diego with great southbound gray whales! We found a couple dolphins and some sea lions. It was almost warm enough for shorts once we were going downwind. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/4/22 4 Gray Whales, Bait Ball with Pacific White Sided Dolphins, Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Today was another fabulous whale watching day. We sailed out and found what we thought was a single gray whale. There was a local boat that was charging the whales, cutting in front of them, and ultimately spooking the whales. It kept coming up once to breath and then took deep dives. We did our best to educate this local boater, and we also had another whale watching boat speak to this boater as well. Once the whale had more space, we found out this was actually a pair of gray whales! They were absolutely beautiful. They came up to breath several times and would dive down for five minutes, then they would come up again. They were a beautiful pair to watch. We headed up north again and found the same local boater harassing two more whales, they were not following the guidelines that were just explained to them, and they were ultimately stressing the the whales. Captain Troy told them that we would be reporting them to the Coast Guard as they were violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Unfortunately, this occurs often in San Diego during our winter whale watching season. We are very excited because the Coast Guard has agreed to come out on Saturday and help enforce safe whale watching practices. We continued our journey north and found a huge bait ball. There were Pacific white sided dolphins, common dolphins, and sea lions in the mix. There were a ton of seabirds as well. We can’t wait until tomorrow!
1/3/22 2 Gray Whales, Common Dolphins, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions Whale watching dreams are made of days like today. The seas were very flat, there were beautiful sunny skies, and the visibility was incredible. We could see snow capped mountains to the east and the north. Captain Troy found a pair of gray whales swimming south to Mexico. These healthy adults were swimming very close together and they were making four minute dives. A pod of twenty common dolphins came in and swam with the whales, it was truly amazing to watch. They continued their journey south as we sailed home. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
1/2/22 3 Gray Whales, Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions  The sun was out and the seas have finally calmed down. It was a fantastic day for whale watching. We sailed south and saw a very friendly gray whale that made several deep dives, so we saw beautiful flukes. The dives only lasted three minutes, so there was a lot of surface time for guests. We sailed north and found a wonderful pair of gray whales. After watching them for a few cycles, we headed home.
1/1/22 5 Gray Whales. Common Dolphins, Sea Lions Happy New Year! We were thrilled to start off the new year with a beautiful blue sky and a sunny day. We sailed out to sea and found five gray whales. They split up into a group of four and one, and then the group of four split into two groups of two. We watched in awe as they swam alongside. Common dolphins swam towards us and played with the whales. What an incredible day. We can’t wait to see you this year!