2022 02-05 SB Channel
Dave calls these kinds of days “Bluebird Days.” Sunny skies and glassy seas for the entire trip. Sightings were mighty good: 75 offshore bottlenose dolphins, 1500 long-beaked common dolphins and 2 humpback whales.
2 mile south of the harbor we played with 200 common dolphins, then a few miles further south another group of 500 or so showed up and cavorted around the boat.
6 miles south of the harbor we put in a small bit of time to watch a shy juvenile humpback whale. Then, just north of The Lanes, a much friendlier second juvenile was closely watched. This animal had a peculiar surfacing behavior. Every time it came up, and just prior to breaking the surface for its breathing interval, it rolled on to its side. We’ve never seen rolling connected with surfacing like this.
Captain Dave proceeded to tour the beautiful northern sea cliffs and green slopes of Santa Cruz Island. His narration about the island is always a good one. With flat calm seas like we had today, Dave was able to put the Condor Express inside the first chamber of the world’s longest sea cave, the Painted Cave.
Immediately in front of The Cave a nice herd of offshore bottlenose dolphins located us and came over to have some interspecies time. There were plenty of young calves in the herd today.
We stopped several times to remove deadly Mylar balloons from the ocean surface. Today one of these stops was to retrieve a massive display or raft of at least 30 deadly balloons. When will people learn to hang on to their balloons? They always end up in the ocean.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
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