h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My wife and I did our whale watching on an excursion from Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA. The boat travelled north, offshore about 2 miles (I'm only guessing), to Boston. I would be interested to hear how our experience off the coast of the eastern US compares to other locations.

Beautiful entry, John.

I went whale-watching off Southern California - Long Beach, to be exact. We saw grey whales, and they lived up to their name - especially as the sea and the sky were grey too, which made it easy to lose them for a while, as you say. But there was no doubting once you'd got them fixed, and no suppressing the sense of awe at their size and grace and complete rightness for that place.

I'd say, don't bother trying to photograph them - the results will be rubbish compared to the experience (the same applies to Grand Prix racing, and anything seen from a train). I wish I'd had a video camera, though, that might have captured a little of the magic.

Oh, and our stomachs suffered too - especially in that part where they turn off the engines so you can float towards the whales without disturbing them. It didn't help that we were on the boat with a bunch of school kids, and the first to go set off a chain reaction...

I think our ride out was rather longer than yours - though we weren't that far offshore, we had to sail a good 45 minutes to an hour from port to get to the whales. But when the sea lions and pelicans are frolicking, and especially when the dolphins are showing how smart they are, it was nothing to complain about.

I disagree with Douglas on dolphins, by the way. The proof of their intelligence isn't in war, the wheel, New York or any of that. I just believe those smiles are real - they manage to live their whole lives in that state of grace which only hits a human every now and again - when they fall in love, or are rewarded for some long and often lonely endeavour, or hold their baby in their arms, or walk through a park on a cold but sunny spring morning and stop and look around.

Now you've made me want to go again .

Thanks for your kind words. I've just been looking at the web site of the company we went out with, Capt. John Boats (believe it or not) in Plymouth, Mass.. It was a 4 hr. round trip to a shallow feeding bank North of Cape Cod and East of Boston. Humpback whales were the main course, although there were several sightings of Minke and Fin whales. I took quite a lot of photos; but, as you say, still picture don't do justice to the experience.

Maybe Inspector Clouseau was actually being very complimentary when he said "You have the brains of a minke?"

...And, as Quasi Modo replied, "the lithe good looks of a Humpback."

Saw on the news the other night that a pod of endangered Blue Whales were spotted off the coast of California.