6 gray whales and 1 humpback whale

2017 05-09 SB Coast

Captain Dave ran two trips today and had some great sightings.  6 gray whales and 1 humpback whale were seen.  Skies were light gray with high stratus and seas had only a light chop from an odd southeast wind.

12 noon Dave took the Condor Express on a wide loop to the southeast, past the oil rigs and out into The Flats, before finding a mother gray whale and her calf near the coast of Carpineria.  The pair were followed for a while as both humans and cetaceans took a course in the direction of Santa Barbara Harbor.

3 pm The first of two cow-calf gray whale pairs were found right outside the harbor entrance and followed up the coast.  Off Hendry’s Beach, the second pair was located and followed further west.  Next, a very unusual sighting was made of an adult gray whale playing in the kelp beds along the beach in water less than 40-feet deep.  After a while it did move a little bit further offshore, but WOW, what a great sighting it was.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express

May 15 begins our 4 ½ hour island whale watch trips.  We leave promptly at 10 am and return around 230 pm.