I live about three miles from the sea in San Luis Obispo, California. Every few years, the humpback whales come close to the 1 for a few days. November, 2020 was one of those times. At the time, my friend Liz Cottriel was 2 with me. So I asked her if she wanted to see them.
"No way!" said Liz. "I'm sure our boat will overturn if we are 3 by hungry whales."
"There's nothing to worry about," I said. "It is very safe if we are following them 4 . I don't want you to miss this wonderful experience and 5 it later."
She finally 6 and we got out on the sea. There were already about 15 whale watchers there. After half an hour, we 7 two whales about 200 feet away.
Having taken a deep breath, the two whales 8 down. I figured we'd be 9 if we went a little bit closer toward that spot. I later found out that whale watchers are 10 to stay 300 feet away.
11 , a lot of small fish started jumping out of the water into our boat. What should have been a fun moment was actually 12 . Their actions meant they were 13 the whales, which meant that we needed to get out of there too. But before we could turn around, our boat was 14 out of the water about six feet. Liz and I fell into the sea. Fortunately, the whales left us alone and other whale watchers immediately came to our 15 and brought us to the beach.