What a glorious day it was in our neck of the Santa Barbara Channel. Skies overhead were clear and sunny, although the fog-shrouded islands were very dramatic to the south. There was a light to moderate breeze with very slight chop all day…nothing really got “out of hand.” Captain Dave, along with his “señor imán de la vida silvestre” Eric, located the following four different species of cetaceans during today’s excursion: 500+ long-beaked common dolphins; 10 Pacific white-sided dolphins; 10 humpback whales with as many as 10 more in the area; 5 giant blue whales with about 9 more in the vicinity. What a day!
We started off heading south-southwest towards an area that was highly productive earlier this week. Eric sighted a nice herd of around 500 dolphins about 4 miles north of The Lanes…we watched them and they watched us. About an hour later we had moved about 4 miles south of The Lanes where we followed a small humpback and had a nice encounter with a small pod of white-sided dolphins. Moving west along the “07” Dave put us into two distinctly productive spots, one before the other. There were spouts in all directions spread out on a this line from the Cave up past Carrington as far as we could see.
Several of the humpbacks were very friendly and came by the boat for a look. One of them was moving west, altered course to look at us while doing a small spyhop, then continued on an easterly course. Very unique. Most of the blue whales were all on 10+ minute down cycles, and one robust blue fluked up not far from the Condor Express for great looks by all. On the way home we found another humpback whale honey hole that may have had 10 – 12 more beasts. We progressed very slowly as we were already late getting back to the docks.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
PS Photos of the day should be posted by tomorrow evening at www.CondorExpressPhotos.com