Humpbackland

2016 04-16 SB Channel

Great sea conditions and warm, sunny skies greeted the Condor Express on all three excursions today.  We spent a lot of quality time in humpbackland.  Here are the details:

9 am Right out in front of the Harbor we encountered 2 gray whales, a cow-calf pair.  They were a bit on the shy side and did a lot of covert breathing which we often call “snorkeling.”  Moving east, we located and watched three humpback whales closely, and at least another three spouts in the distance.  There were plenty of tail flukes to be seen.

12 noon We ran back to the east and humpbackland.   Two additional humpback whales were located, or should I say they located us?  We were getting close to the coordinates and Captain Dave had already stopped the boat and went into drifting when one of the two whales did a very high vertical spy hop with water spilling from its mouth perhaps from lunge feeding.   This happened very close to the bow of the Condor Express.  The second whale did not do this, but was identified as our pal “Rope.”  There were at least 400 long-beaked common dolphins scattered around us.

3 pm The late afternoon sent us back for two additional humpback whales, for a total of seven for the day.  There were short submergence times and nice tail flukes to be seen by all.  On the way back to the Harbor we encountered a group of approximately 30 Pacific white-sided dolphins.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express