2020 07-05 SB Channel
Captain Colton and his crew put together a fantastic trip full of cetaceans. In addition to watching 1 humpback whale, 1 giant blue whale, and 3000 common dolphins, the highlight of the trip was seeing 800+ offshore bottlenose dolphins. Seas were calm and glassy smooth. Except for a small fog patch on the way out, there were clear skies with bright sun all day.
Along a course headed to the western end of Santa Cruz Island, there were numerous large pods of common dolphins that came and played with the Condor Express. In The Lanes adjacent to the west end, we began to also encounter pods of offshore bottlenose dolphins between 100 and 200 individuals each. Their behavior today was highly aerial with several leaps that got up as high as our wheelhouse. Even more offshore pods were watched when we crossed The Lanes later on the way home.
Continuing our trek towards the island, and south of The Lanes, we located a single juvenile blue whale. Although it was a good tail-fluker, it had rather a long 15 minute down times. So after some good surface encouters we continued west.
During our trip back home, there were even more common dolphins, and remarkably, just 1 mile out from the harbor, we watched a single humpback whale.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com
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