Episode 1: Go Whale Watching…Before You Die!
It’s finally arrived, Episode 1 of Before You Die Guy! The big premiere! Months of planning, stressing, and pacing have culminated to this– A first post! It’s Go Whale Watching…Before You Die! A couple things you should know, if you want to go whale watching yourself, so read below!
First of all, if you didn’t watch the episode yet, here it is:
Episode 1: Go Whale Watching…Before You Die!!!
So let’s talk about what we did, and if you’re not into reading, that’s ok! There’s a new video at the bottom that sums it all up for you! Illiterates are welcome here!
So we went whale watching…here’s what happened:
It was a SUPER rough day with huge swells. People were throwing up everywhere. Literally everywhere you looked, there were people leaning over the side of the boat, people staggering through the boat throwing up on themselves as they walked, people climbing into garbage cans. Almost everyone was green, EXCEPT the captain, crew, and my film crew–because we took Bonine–a non-drowsy motion sickness pill. (SO smart, yay us.)
Which brings us to packing list item 1- Sea Sickness Pills If you decide to go whale watching on your own- Take sea sickness pills beforehand. There are lots of different sea sickness remedies and the only ones worth their salt are drugs. Say YES to sea sickness pills. Try for a non-drowsy pill and remember, most should be taken about a half hour before getting on the boat. Wrist bands, ginger, and other homeopathic voo doo rituals will have you throwing up. So don’t risk it, even if you think you don’t get sea sick, you probably do, so get over it and just pop the pills. (Follow directions for safe use though)
As far as who was in the video, we were graced with the presence of the talented actress Mekhala Chatterjee Inghelbrecht, her two kids and my dear childhood friend Jesse Josefsson, who worked behind the camera as our videographer and director. Both of Mekhala’s kids were throwing up within the first hour of our five hour trip, so I think in retrospect, she probably wouldn’t have subjected the kids to it and if I could do it again, I probably would have recommended she keep the kids at home.
The video shows INCREDIBLE footage of whales and even features a little “we saw whales” song (a three part harmony of my voice laid over two other vocal tracks of my voice…aww, so beautiful). Not available on iTunes (yet) but if you’d like an mp3 of it, message me and I’ll send it to you personally. (If you ask for it, prepare to be underwhelmed)
But I have unfortunate news–we did not see whales. We had a whale-less day 🙁 We had to use stock footage for our video. It was a disappointing day for wildlife in general. Lots of birds, but that was about it. No whales, no dolphins, no porpoises, only a couple sea lions and a large patch of harbor seals. So we learned an important lesson about whale watching in Northern California: there’s a right time to go and it’s NOT April.
Apparently the best time to go whale watching in San Francisco is October. It’s also a reasonable time to see great white sharks hunting sea lions! And it’s usually the hottest month of the year in San Francisco, so that’s when I plan to go on my next whale watching trip! The company we went whale watching with, San Francisco Whale Tours, was apologetic about not delivering whales, but they did tell us that all we had to do was record the date that we went whale watching and they could look it up, see that it was whale-less and we could keep coming back whale watching until we saw a whale, so that’s a really nice offer! So October, we’ll be coming back!
(Keep scrolling for the Behind the Scenes Video)
Packing List Item 2- Bring the No-Brainer Stuff- Bring your no-brainer stuff like water, sun block, sun glasses, binoculars. Not going to bore you with common sense packing list stuff, but remember to bring drinks/lunch/snacks etc. The food on board is junk and it’s expensive.
So what we’d differently next time, we’d plan around whale watching season, instead of just going because we had days off. We’re really glad we brought sea sickness drugs. All in all, it was a fun adventure, but we’re definitely looking forward to actually SEEING whales on our next adventure.
Thanks for reading (or for scrolling past all the words part) Hope you enjoy!
Here’s the scout’s honor truth version of our Go Whale Watching…Before You Die!!! video.
Have you been whale watching? Upload your pictures of your whale watching adventures and we’ll put them on our main page!
What’s the best time of year to go whale watching where YOU live?!
What are your tips and tricks for whale watching you recommend we do next time? Please help, we need all the help we can get!