It dawned a "whale of a day", starting just after the green flash. First we found a blue whale, the largest creature to have ever existed on our planet. We watched it gliding just below the surface, rising a half dozen times to blow and finally diving for a period of a quarter hour; a performance repeated a half dozen times. Finally, it showed its tail flukes before a deep dive and everyone on the outside decks cheered. The first time it was such a surprise that we were not ready with our cameras. The second time, however, shutter clicks were audible and videos could be replayed for another round of cheers.

We found a good place to snorkel around Isla San Diego, where there was an apparently deformed left jaw of a young sperm whale.

As we entered the north end of San Jose Channel, several blows were spotted. These turned out to be from several Bryde's (tropical) whales, a small baleen whale. In spite of their reputation for elusive behavior, we were able to get some good views. As we left the Bryde's whales, we noticed a line of cetaceans coming toward us. Upon closer inspection, they were identified as pilot whales. There must have been around fifty of them, including some very young ones! Swimming steadily with seeming determination at about five knots, they nonetheless performed, to our delight, some of the poorly understood antics for which whales are known. Breaching and tail-slapping were two such behaviors.