A glorious day with all three trips running (9am, 12noon, 3pm). Bright sun and calm seas prevailed on our side of the Santa Barbara Channel again today. Once again the cetaceans were abundant and friendly. Here’s the details:
The 9am adventure watched 6 gray whales, one of which was very shy. We found the shy whale off Shoreline Beach, and proceeded quickly west in search of other cetaceans. A stray 5 Pacific white-sided dolphins and then approximately 1,000 long-beaked common dolphins played with us in clear, flat, glassy water off Hope Ranch for quite a while. There was a little upside down feeding going on here and there causing the little anchovies to jump. Finally, near More Mesa we located a group of 5 gray #whales that gave us great looks. The first one breached a couple of times about a quarter mile ahead of the boat.
The high noon show featured 500 or so long-beaked common dolphins off East Beach, and then 2 gray whales in the same area. 5 gray whales were intercepted about a mile south of Stearn’s Wharf and we followed them up past the lighthouse. On the way back we saw 2 more gray whales for a total of nine for this early afternoon expedition.
The late afternoon cruise watched 5 gray whales, one of which had a 10 minute bottom time and we left when a pod of about 100 common #dolphins came by. 4 additional northbound whales were found between the lighthouse and the Gaviota pier. And the Gaviota whale was a juvenile that closed out this cruise by breaching three times in a row.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
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