A special charter cruise goes to the far eastern Channel to find humpbacks and boobies.
Updated: 17 minutes ago
Image: today’s track shows the Condor Express out in the far the eastern Channel. (Courtesy of marinetraffic.com).
2026 10–07 SB Channel
Today was a special cruise ship charter trip. Captain Eddy and the crew took the Condor Express S as far as the lanes and then turned E in order to explore more territory. They passed the eastern end of beautiful Santa Cruz Island. (See today’s image above). There was short interval bump during the first half of the trip, but the ride home was nice. Likewise, a thin marine stratus layer, with 3 mile lateral visibility, burned-off halfway through the trip. We experienced light winds in the afternoon and the water clarity remained excellent. Sightings for the trip: 2 humpback whales.
The 2 young whales were together, and they were traveling W throughout our 1-hour encounter. They had long, 12 minute, downtimes, which made it challenging to follow them. Once or twice they surfaced close to the boat strictly by random chance… and we got great looks.
During the 24-mile trip back to the harbor, the only sighting of a flock of 10-15 Coccos boobies. Their presence in large numbers is attributed to the ever-increasing effects of El Niño.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Note: edited at 4:33 PM on October 8. Changed identification of the species of boobies.
