Tripping the Light Pelagic: Notes from a $17 Whale Watching Tour

A few weeks back Lina had the creative idea that we should all take a whale watching tour. I leapt at the opportunity – though Lina and Naomi work together and are necessarily thick as thieves, I was jonesing to join in on a bit of Memory Lane action.

Pay a Jackson, see a Shamu (we hoped). This photo shows off the whale nails I made. We’ll always have the FingerWhales.

The marina

I was sheepishly surprised when she suggested the activity. I’d made a big to-do of seeking cetaceans on my recent trip to Hawaii. I dragged my boyfriend to supposed humpback lookout points and attempted to spot the famed leaping spinner dolphins while snorkeling at Kealakekua Bay. Neither plan yielded a sighting. Deepak and I traveled 2,500 miles in search of telltale tails.

At Kealekekua Bay on the Big Island. I was led to believe that we would see pods of spinner dolphins leaping high above our heads, forming a gleeful counterpoint to the grim “This is where Captain Cook was slaughtered by natives!” monument.

This is a man prepping to see some dorsal fin.

Preparing for a sighting …

Where are you, dolphins?! To quote Justin Timberlake: “I turn my head to the east; I don’t see nobody by my side. I turn my head to the west, still nobody in sight.”

Who knew we could have just bought a $17 Amazon Local deal, driven a couple miles to the marina, and tripped the light pelagic for ourselves on a lazy Sunday afternoon?