We burst out the door into the driving rain, and there twenty feet below was a huge gray whale. For a moment it lay motionless, the caudal end (flukes) in water only a few feet deep. It rolled around a little and stared right at me. I had just made eye contact with what I later learned was an adolescent male mysticete show-off.

I could see that a big set of breakers was beginning to roll in, and I wondered if the whale was going to wash against the pier pilings.

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