Hooray! No fog. In fact the Santa Barbara Channel was under the remnants of a fizzled-out tropical Pacific storm “Paine.” It was fairly calm but a little bit humid. Sightings for today included 5 humpback whales, 1,800 long-beaked common dolphins and at least 600 or so California sea lions. This was a private whale watch for cruise ship people that got off a huge ship and stepped on to the Condor Express.
The first encounter was about 6 miles south of Campus Point where things got started with a few large pods of common dolphins. The dolphins were soon joined by one, then a second humpback whale. Good looks were had and Captain Dave proceeded south.
North of The Lanes another round of large common dolphin herds came to the boat. At this point a light wind and chop had developed by nothing would stop these little cetaceans from having some good wave riding around the Condor. The third humpback was in this zone too. Dave continued south.
Dave did his now famous interpretation of the history, geology, geography and conservation efforts pertaining to beautiful Santa Cruz Island and its magnificent Painted Cave. The winds found in the Channel died completely along the face of the island. Not far off the steep sea cliffs here many hundreds of California sea lions, arranged in two mega-mobs, were alternating subsurface feeding with surface relaxing and porpoising.
On the way home another two humpbacks were observed alongside more dolphin pods.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
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