Hey,

It's a minke whale. The picture was taken the weekend after Christmas just
off the coast of Malibu (that's Pepperdine University in the background).

We hove-to for lunch (actually it was dead calm anyways) and all of the
sudden this solitary whale popped up about 10 yards off our stern. He (or
she) was about 24 feet long. He was VERY curious and would swim underneath
the boat and roll over to show us his belly. At first we didn't know if he
was interested in the boat or us. After a while we all settled on the
stern, and then he would only pop up off the stern (interested in us).
Occassionally he would disappear for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. In all, he
stayed with us for an hour and fifteen minutes!

It was an incredible experience. We didn't know what kind of whale it was
until we got home and researched it.

I hope we see some grays this season. They tend to stay closer to shore on
their way north from Mexico.


"katysails" wrote in message
...
are available he http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~brien/ftp


Wow! Was that a baleen whale? How close were you?

--
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein