Fast Raft

Fast Raft Whale Watching, Coastal Tours, Private Charters on Monterey Bay, with a fast, quiet 6-passenger RIB. Schedule & tickets: https://fastraft.com Join us!
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Scheduled public tours and custom private charters in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Whale watching, coastal cruises to Point Lobos, and special events. "Ranger" is a 33ft RIB (rigid fiberglass hull, inflatable pontoons) with two new EPA certified four-stroke Mercury engines. The boat was designed for military use and is made to the highest standards of safety and reliability. It's perfect for photography and feeling close to the whales and dolphins.

06/29/2025

This young whale circled the boat and blew numerous bubble rings right next to us! It also got us a bit soaked by breathing on the upwind side. 😅

Humpback whales use bubbles to corral fish, to communicate with each other, and sometimes when they're visiting boats. There's a scientific paper out about it recently. How cool to see it in person!

There were no passengers aboard this time, just owners Kate and Don, out supporting research boats on a foggy, choppy Saturday afternoon. Whales sometimes get "friendly" or curious and visit boats, to the delight of many whale watchers.

Come meet the whales with us!
Daily tours, private charters, & info: www.fastraft.com
Fast Raft Whale Watching Safaris
Moss Landing

Getting artistic in the fog with a humpback whaleCome on out! The Fast Raft is never crowded, with just six passengers. ...
06/29/2025

Getting artistic in the fog with a humpback whale

Come on out! The Fast Raft is never crowded, with just six passengers.
Daily tours from Moss Landing Harbor on Monterey Bay
Tickets & info at FastRaft.com

S***m whale yesterday, killer whales today? Are we dreaming? It's just Monterey Bay being amazing! Coolest of all was se...
06/25/2025

S***m whale yesterday, killer whales today? Are we dreaming? It's just Monterey Bay being amazing!

Coolest of all was seeing a few humpback whales harassing the killer whales! That happens surprisingly often, like crows mobbing hawks. It worked—the orcas took off swimming underwater for ten minutes at a time. They can swim a hundred miles a day. But sometimes they stick around. We'll sure be looking for them in the morning!

Join us! Tickets & info at fastraft.com
Daily tours & private charters from Moss Landing, at the heart of Monterey Bay, California

Photo by Captain Brian Phan

S***M WHALE! After a windy stretch lasting three days that led us to reschedule passengers and stay off the water, we ha...
06/23/2025

S***M WHALE!

After a windy stretch lasting three days that led us to reschedule passengers and stay off the water, we had a very nice morning whale watch today!

Humpbacks? Check. Risso's dolphins? Check. Black-footed albatross? Check. Sooty shearwaters? Check.

S***m whale? OH YEAH, BABY!

We heard of this sighting close to the end of our scheduled three hours but no one needed to be back to the dock on time, it was nice out, and it can be years between s***m whale sightings so off we went! After driving due west for about 20 minutes, we got to the area just as the s***m whale surfaced after about a 30 minute dive.

S***m whales can be very difficult to watch as they can dive up to two hours. We were very lucky in that after we arrived, it only dove for about 15 minutes at a time.

We got three high-quality looks at this huge adult male. S***m whales, the largest toothed whale (and the largest toothed predator on the planet!) can be sexed by size and behavior. Males average about 52 feet and can be as long as 60 feet, while females top out at 37 feet. So a female would be at most about the length of our 33 foot boat. This individual was significantly longer than our boat. Females generally are found in groups, often with at least one calf, while males are solitary except when mating.

If you look at the closeup photo of the dorsal fin, you can see the s***m whale's wrinkly skin. This is entirely normal and increases the surface area of the skin allowing for greater heat loss.

Come on out! You never know what we might see!

Daily tours, online tickets, & info: www.FastRaft.com

Photos ©Don Baccus

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Onshore bottlenose dolphins are the one species of the six species of dolphin found in Monterey Bay that is always found...
06/17/2025

Onshore bottlenose dolphins are the one species of the six species of dolphin found in Monterey Bay that is always found near shore. Worldwide, they are almost nearly always found within a quarter mile of land, often fishing just outside the surf line.

Because of this, we rarely see them on our whale watching tours. When we do, it is always as we are leaving or entering Moss Landing Harbor, so at the beginning or end of our trips.

Yesterday we had a young woman on board who graduated last Saturday from Santa Clara University. Her mom, aunt, and uncle had traveled here from Chicago, to attend her graduation, and took her out whale watching with us as a graduation present.

At the end of the trip she mentioned she saw dolphins from the beach on Sunday from a beach at Santa Cruz and asked what species they might be. After she described them I told her bottlenose dolphins. "But they look different than the ones I've seen in Florida!". I explained our population here in the eastern Pacific are duskier than those seen in the southeastern US.

Just moments after this discussion we heard that another boat had found bottlenose dolphins about a half mile north of us, just off the beach!

So she got to see our bottlenose dolphins two days in a row!

These photos make it clear how close to shore we often see them. And also their dusky coloration.

Oh, yeah, and we saw plenty of humpbacks just outside the harbor entrance, too. Between dolphins and humpbacks, what more could you want?

Come on out!

Daily tours, online tickets, & info: www.FastRaft.com

Photos ©Don Baccus

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Four huge humpbacks lunging at once! We also saw Northern right-whale dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins, and a g...
06/13/2025

Four huge humpbacks lunging at once!
We also saw Northern right-whale dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins, and a group of five humpbacks feeding with hundreds of sea lions.

Come on out!
Daily tours, online tickets, & info: www.FastRaft.com

Photo by Captain ©Kate Spencer

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All about that breach!This young whale couldn't stop breaching and tail-lobbing and flipper-slapping. Then Pacific white...
06/10/2025

All about that breach!
This young whale couldn't stop breaching and tail-lobbing and flipper-slapping. Then Pacific white-sided dolphins found us and danced all around the boat. Pretty spectacular day on Monterey Bay, all within five miles of Moss Landing Harbor!

Come on out! The Fast Raft is never crowded, with just six passengers.
Daily tour tickets & info at FastRaft.com

That island is a BLUE WHALE in Monterey Bay!Adults are 70–90 feet long, about two humpbacks. That's the Monterey Airport...
06/09/2025

That island is a BLUE WHALE in Monterey Bay!
Adults are 70–90 feet long, about two humpbacks. That's the Monterey Airport in the background. Usually they are out on the continental shelf slope in much deeper water where there is very dense krill. This one was figuring out it's all anchovies in there, and those tubby humpbacks. Blue whales are so elongated and streamlined that their small dorsal fin doesn't even show until the whole head and blowholes have gone down.

We also saw fantastic humpback whale breaches, schools of anchovies at the surface, Pacific white-sided dolphins and Risso's dolphins, and hundreds of small sport fishing boats looking for salmon. They had better luck yesterday.

We sure had good luck today! Come join us. Summer whale watching is really warming up.

Tickets & info: https://fastraft.com

Vertical lunge-feeding!We had a wonderful afternoon watching humpbacks gorging themselves surrounded by a couple hundred...
06/08/2025

Vertical lunge-feeding!
We had a wonderful afternoon watching humpbacks gorging themselves surrounded by a couple hundred recreational boats fishing for salmon.

Why were all those boats around the whales? Today was the opening day for California's special weekend recreational salmon season (after a couple of years of closure due to the impact of several years of drought).

Salmon eat anchovies.

Humpback whales eat anchovies.

So we look for whales in the same places fishers are liking for salmon.

Many of the fishermen were paying almost as much attention to the humpbacks feeding as they were to their poles. Especially when a large school of anchovies rose to the surface and the whales began vertical lunge feeding for about two hours in the afternoon!

When we first arrived at this location, we found three humpbacks that were napping, lying at the surface and occasionally breathing. We were just about to leave when they woke up and went to work.

We were glad we took the time to watch them snooze because as they did, the anchovies rose to the surface, and the humpbacks roused themselves and the action was fantastic.

Join us!

Tickets & info: fastraft.com

831-324-4883

Dolphins stole the show today! Did you know there are at least 38 species of dolphins? Risso's like this one are who we ...
06/07/2025

Dolphins stole the show today!
Did you know there are at least 38 species of dolphins? Risso's like this one are who we see most frequently. They're deep diving squid hunters whose faces get scratched up by raspy squid tentacles—and their bodies are decorated with rake marks from horseplay with their companions. They also get lighter with age, like our graying hair. This dark young adult shows their natural chest markings unusually well. There are even dark spots where a few sensitive hairs grow on its upper lip! Yep, dolphins and whales are mammals, and they have whiskers!

We also saw several humpback whales including a cow-calf pair, Pacific white-sided dolphins, and gazillions of sooty shearwaters. Come on out!

Tickets & info: fastraft.com
831-324-4883

Will this happen again tomorrow?😃Louise's family of killer whales were here three days this week!Great photos by our Cap...
06/06/2025

Will this happen again tomorrow?😃
Louise's family of killer whales were here three days this week!
Great photos by our Captain Kaelyn . Come on back, Louise! You may have seen some amazing videos from several boats on Monterey Bay because they were super interactive and visited all the boats. We enjoyed them all by ourselves for nearly an hour on Tuesday before any other boats arrived. At one point three of them were swimming upside-down! Thanks, Louise—we love your family!

We'll be happy with humpback whales too, of course. 🐋💦

Tickets & info: fastraft.com
831-324-4883

06/05/2025

Orcas three days in a row!

Tuesday was special. Our stellar Second Captain, Kaelyn DeYoung, brought her grandparents whale watching to experience the super boat she's so fond of driving.

We left an hour before any other boats and in about 10 minutes found these killer whales near Moss Landing. The matriarch, CA140B, is nicknamed "Louise" and her family now includes a baby that was just born last November!

We enjoyed them by ourselves for an hour in calm, quiet sea conditions. Don took this video just a few minutes before the second whale watching boat showed up (that's their captain you can hear on the radio). If you listen closely, just after he makes his comment you can hear a funny vocalization by one of the killer whales.

Come enjoy the of the wonderful marine life here on Monterey Bay!

Daily tours, private charters, and info at https://fastraft.com

Video ©Don Baccus

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