Festival Is No Fluke

Waddling along Santa Clara Avenue, Dana the whale stopped to wrap its fins around 4-year-old Chelsea Donenfeld, who took the opportunity to tickle its mouth.

“I love you,” Chelsea told the barnacle-encrusted, costumed character.

Her affection for whales mirrored the inspiration behind the 26th annual Dana Point Festival of Whales, which drew about 10,000 people on its opening day for a parade--with Dana--marching bands and other attractions.

Co-hosted by the Dana Point Chamber of Commerce and the Dana Point Harbor Assn., the festival celebrates the annual migration of California gray whales between Mexico and Alaska.

Activities such as kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, fun runs and a beach volleyball tournament will take place on weekends in and around Dana Point Harbor until March 10. A total of 100,000 people are expected to attend the festival by its last day.

For whale fans, Dana Wharf Sportfishing, the Orange County Marine Institute and Dana Island Yacht Charters offer two hour-plus cruises to witness the mammals’ migration through local waters.

“Dana Point has a harbor with very direct access to the ocean,” said Stan Cummings, president of the marine institute. “It’s a natural place to observe this particular phenomenon.”

The institute’s cruises feature on-board microscopes to examine plankton scooped up from the ocean floor by mechanical hands.

Eric Enlon, 11, was among those who examined the gray whales’ primary source of nutrition.

“It looks like mosquitoes, but I think it’s plankton,” he said.

At the harbor, Dave Hendersen, 38, busied himself with a shovel, transforming a 27-ton pile of sand into a car-sized whale sculpture, which he said he could finish in two days. The whale will remain on display for the length of the festival.

“Dirty sand--silt and little chunks of rock and dirt--that’s our secret,” the artist said, explaining how the sand will stick together for three weeks.

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Arts and crafts, music, food and a 40-foot, walk-through wooden whale for kids were some of the other attractions at the festival’s fair, near La Plaza and Pacific Coast Highway.

Feeding wheat to a small lamb in the petting zoo, Riverside resident Christy MacBride and her sons said that their love for the ocean drew them to the festival.

“We went whale watching and saw two whales!” 8-year-old Andy said.

Dana Point resident Brad Gross, 36, watched his 9-year-old daughter, Natalie, march in the parade. The sense of community, he said, is important.

“The whale festival seems to be catching on,” he said. “This community turns out pretty well for these types of things.”