Even a green flash sunrise off the north end of Isla San Jose did not properly prepare us for the morning ahead. It began with our wakeup call encouraging us to come out on deck and watch blue whales as they surfaced all around us in the beautiful early morning light. Most of us never thought that we would ever see a blue whale and to have 5 of them surfacing so near our ship was beyond our wildest dreams.

During breakfast the Sea Lion moved south into the San Jose Channel and soon the call went out over the P.A. system that we should come out on deck and either watch a school of bottlenose dolphins off the starboard side or blue whales on the port side. The image of a chameleon came to mind as we madly tried to watch what was happening on both sides of the ship simultaneously! Then came the call to watch carefully as another large whale surfaced off the bow. It differed from the blue whales in that it had a large dorsal fin and was much darker in color--a fin whale. Not just a fin whale, but a fin whale with a calf! What could be cuter than a mother with a 3-ton baby? We even saw the proof positive of fin whale identification--the white right lower lip of both the mother and the calf! It was then only a matter of time until humpback whales were sighted and we watched them gracefully swimming along and throw their mighty flukes into the air. The rest of the morning was spent in the company of blue, fin and humpback whales throughout the San Jose Channel. It could not have been a better start to our expedition "Among the Great Whales".