One 2½ hour trip today, but you couldn’t tell by the whale counts…that’s for sure! As we left Santa Barbara Harbor at 12 noon we almost immediately saw 2 inshore bottlenose dolphins. After that, the long-beaked common #dolphins were everywhere in pods ranging from a half-dozen to 50 or so. At the end of the day we estimated at least 120 commons were seen/played with. The first whale sighted was a huge and beefy humpback #whale. It kicked up its massive flukes and we never saw it again. Not to worry, because thereafter it was time for the gray whales to rack-up some face time with us. We saw 15 gray whales and had additional “one-spout wonders” in the distance. Gray whale pods were made up of mostly pairs, one quad-pod, and one solo. One was a particularly regular tail fluker. Just when we were all getting blurry-eyed with cetaceans and heading home, our CINC Naturalist, Debbie found yet another humpback whale and we had some good looks at it.
Conditions were sunny, warm and there was a moderate breeze kicking up some slight chop from the west. All great factors for spout-spotting!
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
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