Image: a breaching Minke whale.
2024 11– 11 SB Channel
The trip started off with very nice calm seas, according to Captain Danny. But as the day progressed, the wind picked up a bit. Sighings for the day included: 550 common dolphins, 6 humpback whales and 1 Minke whale.
On our way to The Farm we watched a small pod of dolphins, and just a short while later, a bit to the southeast, a much larger pod came by we spent some time interacting with it. Great looks were had by all.
To the east, we found our first humpback. It breached twice then when into travel mode heading east. As we looked further out to the east, we saw more breaching and more spouts. On the scene we found a pair of whales that had been traveling but immediately diverted to the Condor Express and mugged us for over 40 minutes. An additional whale joined in the fun after a while. What a great time of year it is!
On the home stretch we had quick looks at another pair of whales. We also saw a relatively infrequent Minke whale behavior… It breached three times! Our lucky day.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob
Wow. Wonderful Humpback Whale sightings with active breaching and close approaches could only be topped by an exceptional sequence of Minke Whale breachs that exposed some of their interesting coloration: chevrons, white shoulder patches on their pectoral flippers and the grey/white countershading.