2015 10-02 SB Channel
Humpbacks Near the Bow
As my online photographs will reveal (when I get them posted on Sunday) it was another wildly beautiful day in the Santa Barbara Channel. Sea conditions were very nice as we left the Harbor, they got worse as we crossed The Lanes, and finally it turned out to be rather breezy and dramatic out on The Ledge north of Santa Rosa Island. There was no marine life out on The Ledge today except for about 200 long-beaked common dolphins leaping over the choppy waves and providing entertainment for all us humans. About 10 people also saw a large ocean sunfish (Mola mola) in between the swells.
With conditions safe but a bit uncomfortable, Captain Dave wisely turned around and put the seas behind us to make the ride very nice as we moved east looking for more wildlife. After about an hour the ocean surface had gotten less violent in the eastern direction and Captain Dave had spouts ahead. Five humpbacks were in this sector and the spray from their spouts was being blown all over by the wind. It was fun to watch these beasts negotiate the large waves. Dave became the official Condor Express “Whale Whisperer” today, as his powers of positive whale vibrations soon had 4 of the 5 humpbacks coming right over to us. The whales rode alongside, swam under the boat, and as deckhand Eric’s GoPro footage revealed, two of the whales actually hung out in Condor Express shade. They came up and we had a humpbacks near the bow. It’s one thing to have good whale eyes and spot cetaceans in rough seas, but it is another to get them to come over for a direct meet-and-greet. Oh, and yet another 200 or so dolphins were in the whale sector too.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express