It’s the season for cruising to a rendezvous with the ‘gentle giants of the sea.’

Tammy Espinoza was a real skeptic. There aren’t any whales out there, insisted the shy 7-year-old as a whale-watching boat plied the ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula on Wednesday morning.

But a few moments later, after one of the giants of the sea arched into view--its spine ridged and its back marked by white scars left by barnacles--Tammy changed her mind.

“They’re real,” she said. “They’re not pretend.”

As the whale-watch boat Voyager trailed behind, the southbound animal surfaced a few more times, drawing excited cries from the passengers crowded against the bow railing.

“There’s his head,” someone exclaimed. Binoculars brought the whale even closer for some. Others captured him on videotape and film.

Sighting the whale was the high point of the Voyager’s cruise, part of a winter ritual that got under way the day after Christmas.

It’s the search for Pacific gray whales as they make their annual 12,000-mile round trip between Alaska and Baja California. The “gentle giants of the sea,” as some call them, journey from their cold northern feeding grounds to the warm coves of Mexico, where they breed and give birth.

Between now and the end of March, thousands of people will take to the sea for two or three hours, hoping not only to glimpse some of the 50-foot mammals but to catch them in their antics. The most spectacular sights are breaching, in which whales throw their whole bodies out of the water, and fluking, a deep dive in which they show their tail fins.

This early in the season, whales can be difficult to find. Indeed, the Voyager’s sighting came late in the trip, and some passengers thought they might have to be content seeing sea birds and a group of California sea lions lolling on a buoy.

But Voyager skipper John Strunk, who sails from the Redondo Sport Fishing pier, said almost every trip has turned up a whale. In San Pedro, the captain of the Los Angeles Harbor Cruises whale-watch boat said he has been getting “significant sightings,” including a mother and her yearling calf spotted on the first trip out. “It was a really exciting beginning of the season,” Gene Meister said.

The best time for spotting the Pacific grays, experts say, is in February and March, when some will be heading back to Alaska as others are still swimming south.

During the trips, boat captains or guides from the Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro and the American Cetacean Society enhance the excitement of whale watching with information about the seagoing mammals and how to spot them in the water. If you don’t know how whales filter food out of mouthfuls of debris from the ocean bottom, you will by the time you hit land again.

Larry Fukuhara, whale-watch director at the Cabrillo museum, said people are drawn to whales because everyone dreams of seeing wild animals in their natural state. “We have them right off our coast,” he said. “You can watch documentaries, but it’s nothing like seeing how graceful and alive they are in person.”

Cetacean society guide Ken Seward has yet to tire of whales after at least 300 trips. “I always get goose pimples when I see them,” he said.

The following South Bay and Long Beach locations offer whale watching. Reservations are advised. Many have group rates. Rubber-soled shoes and warm clothing should be worn.

* Redondo Sport Fishing, 233 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach. Weekdays 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; weekends 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Weekday fare $8; weekend fares $11 adults, $8 children 12 and under. Telephone: 372-2111.

* 22nd Street Landing, 141 W. 22nd St., San Pedro. Weekdays 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.; weekends 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Weekday fares $11 adults, $8 children 12 and under and seniors 62 and over; weekend fares $12 adults, $9 children and older people. Telephone: 832-8304.

* Buccaneer-Mardi Gras Cruises, Berth 76, Ports O’ Call Village, San Pedro. Begins Saturday. Weekend Champagne brunch whale watch on Buccaneer Queen pirate ship, 1 p.m. Cost, $28 adults and half price for children 12 and under. Telephone: 548-1085.

* Los Angeles Harbor Sportfishing, Berth 79, Ports O’ Call. Weekdays 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.; weekends 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., $12 adults; $9 children 12 and under. Telephone: 547-9916.

* Los Angeles Harbor Cruises, Ports O’ Call, Village Boat House Berth 77. Weekdays 11:30 a.m.; weekends 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Weekday fares: $10 adults; $4 children 2 to 12; children under 2 free. Weekend fares: $12 adults, $5 children; ($9 adults, $3 children for 9 a.m. boat). Telephone: 831-0996.

* Catalina Cruises, 320 Golden Shore, Long Beach. Begins Jan. 18. Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. Fares: $12 adult, $11 seniors 55 and over, $10 children 5 to 11, $3 children under 5. Telephone: 491-5559.

* Star Party Cruises, 140 Marine Drive, Long Beach Marina Seaport Village. Begins Tuesday. Weekdays 10 a.m.; weekends 10 a.m. 1 p.m., $11 adults; $10 older people and military personnel; $8 children 12 and under. Telephone: 431-6833.

* Belmont Sports Fishing, Belmont Pier at Ocean Boulevard and Termino Avenue, Long Beach. Weekdays 10 a.m.; weekends 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Weekday fares: $8 adults, $6 children 12 and under. Weekend fares: $10 adults, $7 children. Telephone: 434-6781.

* General information on whale-watch trips with Cabrillo Marine Museum and American Cetacean Society guides, 832-4444.