2021 09-17 SB Channel
The early gray stratus clouds burned off to yield clear, blue skies for the remainder of the trip. Seas were calm and winds were light and variable. Captain Dave and the crew traversed the Channel to closely watch: 16+ humpback whales, 2500 long-beaked common dolphins, 500 short-beaked common dolphins and 75 California sea lions.
The majority of our sightings took place near the NOAA East Channel Buoy. Here we saw a dozen whales with more in the area. Lots of long-beaked dolphins and California sea lions were also present in this feeding hot spot.
Dave left the buoy area and took the Condor Express on a nice tour of the majestic sea cliffs, grottos and caves along the northwestern face of beautiful Santa Cruz Island. This tour included a look inside the world-famous Painted Cave, too.
Coming out of The Cave and heading home a highly acrobatic but small pod of short-beaked common dolphins found us and they were an exciting interlude between whale hotspots.
Not far from the short-beaks, on our route home without a lot of time left, we watched an additional 4 whales with as many as a dozen more all around that we did not have time to investigate.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
After having such wonderful sights further offshore (we were several miles south of San Miguel Island at one point) on our special 8-hour whale watch last month, Captain Dave is going to do it again! We’ll have plenty to time to explore every nook and cranny known to cetaceans and look for pelagic birds along the way.
Make your reservations now: Saturday, September 25 – 8am to 4pm
https://condorexpress.whalewatchreservations.com/cexvouchers/user.php?trip_id=775189
phone: 888-77WHALE or 805-882-0088
My report from the August trip is here:
All day trip with killer whales etc etc
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