2020 02-01 SB Channel
As you can see on the chart of our course today, Captain Dave and the crew took us across the Santa Barbara Channel and along the northern face of Santa Cruz Island. As Dave said, “It was a bluebird kind of day.” There was no wind, skies were sunny and bright and seas were calm. Sightings today were very good with 4 gray whales, 500 long-beaked common dolphins, 200 offshore bottlenose dolphins, plus 1 ocean sunfish (Mola mola) and at least 20 Pacific harbor seals on an island beach.
About 8 miles out from the harbor a large pod of bottlenose dolphins located the Condor Express. It was a very active and acrobatic pod and had numerous calves in the group. They seemed to enjoy surfing our wake and doing some high jumping over our waves. There was a single, huge, Mola mola in their path and the dolphins got curious and caused it to flee to deeper waters asap.
We continued on our path to the island and found several pods of a smaller species, common dolphins. They, too, were friendly and fun to watch in our waves.
At Santa Cruz Island Dave and the crew found 3 southbound migrating gray whales paralleling the island. The water was clear and this made the whales even easier to follow. A bit later a single whale was spotted.
As part of the island tour we saw beautiful Pelican Bay and Twin Harbors. On the beach at Twin Harbors we saw a nice group of harbor seals resting in the sun
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
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