“Out front, to the left!” the captain announces over the radio, as we cut through the inky-blue Santa Barbara Channel back to the California mainland. Slowing down, we all jump up as a humpback whale pops like a cork out of the deep, as if to say: “Surprise! Here I am!”
We let out a collective cheer of joy, as the mighty creature pauses, rolls over and gracefully sinks back down. Minutes later, a couple of metres away, we watch as another shoots a jet of water from its blowhole into the air, while a flock of noisy seabirds flap and squawk overhead. And to think that earlier I was chuffed to have seen hundreds of pelicans perched on a harbour wall and a solo manta ray gliding through a kelp forest under a jetty.
