Went out with/as Gotham Whale on the American Princess Cruises Whale and Dolphin watch on Sunday, August 19^th.  ENE winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt. Seas 3 to 5 ft. Slight chance of light rain and drizzle late in the morning with a chance of a thunderstorm throughout the day. Water temp is warm at 79 degrees. Full boat of whale and dolphin watchers ready to go on an adventure.

Started out heading south of Breezy but before we even left the channel we were greeted by some Inshore bottlenose Dolphin. A small pod was crossing the channel- it was a quick encounter, but we saw dolphins. Now we are in the ocean and it was 2-5 ft and the wind was on it. Not perfect conditions but we knew where the whales were, so we slowly went to that area.

Get to the area and spend a good time looking but nothing, we did see a shark finning, and that’s great but it's not a shark adventure so we move on.

We head over to Fort Tilden, off the beach, and meet up with a playful Dolphin pod. They were feeding and playing around and gave us a great show. They were in and out of the surf and around the boat, very close at times. The water was so clear you can see the dolphins down in the water as they swim under the boat. We stayed with the dolphins and followed them west towards Breezy Jetty, they were leading us home. Capt. gives a shout out, we are heading in but if we see anything we will stop.

We pass the Breezy point Jetty and since the ocean swell was larger the Sand Bar west of the Jetty was breaking. It was a north wind, so the waves stood up and were clean. I looked at the bar watching the waves break and a dolphin breaches out of the breaking wave! WHAT THE HELL??? I rip my gear out of the backpacks and start shooting. The show those dolphins gave us was spectacular, bordering on epic! These dolphins were treating these waves like it was a ride. They would ride the waves until the sandbar stopped and the waves dissipated and go back to the start of the bar and do it all over again. This went on for a good 20 minutes. While that was happening, moms with calves were swimming feet from the boat AND ALL THIS was happening IN LOWER NY HARBOR! CRAZY!

What a day out, no whales seen but the dolphins made up for it. The dolphin sightings have been incredible this year and the amount of newborn calves in NYC waters is incredible, it’s great to see.

FYI - READ THIS IF YOU GET SEASICK!