2015 10-04 SB Channel
Captain Eric thought the drought must be over as he experienced heavy downpours of rain throughout most of the trip in the Santa Barbara Channel today. But the precipitation did not dampen anyone’s spirits and the first cetacean species watched was a nice, friendly pod of inshore bottlenose dolphins which we found just outside the Harbor entrance.
The second major sighting was a humpback in the rain, about 3 miles south of Santa Barbara City. The whale circled around and had long down times, but also showed equally long surface times. The humpback also made several friendly approaches to the Condor Express. During the humpback session another fantastic sighting occurred: a #striped marlin was watched on the surface. The crew was reluctant to use their iPhone’s to photograph this billfish given the intense rain.
As Eric took the boat east towards Habitat he picked up a pod of about 25 Pacific white-sided dolphins, perhaps the same ones we had on yesterday’s excursion. Several ocean sunfish (Mola mola) were observed near floating kelp paddies too. Sea conditions were great to see that humpback in the rain.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express