Friendly common dolphins ride alongside the Condor Express.
We ran two trips today. There was a coastal educational trip in the morning that took us up near Platform Holly and back. Our standard whale watch trip ran from 1pm to 530pm. Here are the whale watch details.
Captain Dave headed southwest on a moderately breezy afternoon with light chop. We encountered on minke whale for a few seconds, and a pod or two of common dolphins. Dave ran us out to the island shelf break and then headed downhill….to the east. Before long the keen eyes of deckhand Eric had spotted a couple of blue whales spouting. The whales were separated by about a half mile and both were banging their spoon-shaped heads into the oncoming seas and trekking to the west. It was amazing watching their tall spouts being sent asunder by the winds. There were a couple of other blue whale spouts in the distance. After some good looks in deteriorating seas, Dave pointed us homeward.
Before long Eric had a medium sized group of about 500 or so common dolphins and Dave steered a course for us to ride alongside and we got great looks. This turned out to be a nursery pod and I have never seen such tiny young dolphins in the mix. I swear some were less than a foot long. All of the dolphins, young and old were riding the swells and trying to feed on scattered anchovies.
A wild ride for sure today.
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