2020 09-04 SB Channel East …Even more giants … Captain Colton and his crew ran southeast towards the eastern end of Santa Cruz Island today. Seas were glassy, and skies were sunny (except for one lone patch of fog north of The Lanes). Sightings included: 15+ giant blue whales, 5 coastal bottlenose dolphins, 5 offshore bottlenose dolphins, 1500 long-beaked common … Read More
Giant blue whalefest continues uabated.
2020 09-03 SB Channel East Whalefest continues unabated! Captain Colton, aka “Boat Colton,” reported calm and sunny conditions in the Channel today. The crew headed straight to the eastern end of Santa Cruz Island and the “land of the giants.” Sightings included 10+ giant blue whales and 2000 long-beaked common dolphins. The trip across featured common dolphins and their numbers … Read More
Ideal conditions: blue whales and plenty of dolphins, too.
2020 08-31 SB Channel The morning high stratus gave way to bright sunlight by the time we reached the land of the giants at Santa Cruz Island. The sea surface was mostly glassy. Sightings included 3 giant blue whales and 1500 long-beaked common dolphins. Multiple small pods of common dolphins found the Condor Express on our way outbound. The trip … Read More
6 giant blue whales get up-staged by a tiny Minke whale.
2020 08-30 SB Channel Magnificent giant blue whales up-staged by tiny Minke whale. Spectacular weather and sea conditions once again led us to one of the most awesome cetacean-packed days we’ve had this summer… and that is saying a lot!. Captain Colton and his keen-eyed crew took us across the Santa Barbara Channel to the eastern region of Santa Cruz … Read More
All-day trip yields 5 cetacean species in flat calm seas.
2020 08-29 All Day SB Channel This was our summer all-day trip which departed at 8a and returned around 5p. The Santa Barbara Channel was flat and calm, and mirror glass for most of the morning. I’ll detail the trip below. Sightings included: 8+ giant blue whales, 1 humpback whale, 2000 long-beaked common dolphins, 1500 short-beaked common dolphins, 200 offshore … Read More
15 or more giant blue whales and we watched 10. Spectacular!
2020 08-28 East Santa Cruz Island Skies were overcast with fogust stratus until we reached the land of the giants. Thereafter it was sunny and breezy and perfect for blue whales. The waters north of the eastern end of Santa Cruz Island was our focus again today, and the following were recorded: 10+ giant blue whales and 300 short-beaked common … Read More
Perhaps 10 giant blues in the wind; we watched 5. Bright sun…clear water!
2020 08-27 SB Channel Moderate winds blew down upon us from the northwest and made the sea surface a bit choppy-but-doable. The sun was bright and skies were blue…so was the clear ocean water. Captain Dave and his crew battled the sideways seas to return to the land of the giants north of Chinese Harbor and Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz … Read More
10 or more giant blue whales; we watched 6 in the breeze.
2020 08-25 SB Channel The sun came out as we left Santa Barbara Harbor and continued to shine upon the Condor Express all day. Fog to the south and west of us never moved into our space. Captain Colton and his crew found rather calm sea conditions for the northern half of the trip, but about mid-way, a fresh breeze … Read More
Sunlight shines upon 5+ giant blue whales on a foggy day!
2020 08-23 SB Channel “Fogust” (as Daniel Swain recently called it) is back, with a small amount of smoke, and visibilities at times were reduced to less than 100 yards. Seas were calm and glassy. As our good luck would have it, there was a brief period of sun with no fog, and it coincided with our arriving at the … Read More