2021 04-06 SB CHANNEL
Strong afternoon and evening winds were absent for our two whale watch trips today (9a and 12n), but the sea surface had a distracting residual bump from the high winds overnight. Skies were hazy but sunny with a few small clouds here and there. Sightings included: 2 humpback whales, 1 gray whale and 20 offshore bottlenose dolphins.
We slowly worked west into the on-coming bump until we found our first whale, a gray, near Goleta Bay. It was a shy whale and the surface turbulence did not help. Captain Dave then headed offshore and soon a small pod of wonderful offshore bottlenose dolphins located us. We had a short but fun interaction with them. When the Condor Express was about 6 miles out, a breach caught the crew’s eyes. This turned out to be a friendly juvenile humpback that mugged us briefly and swam circles around the boat.
Noon was similarly bumpy, and Dave took a direct course to see if we could locate the same humpback seen in the morning. Instead a larger humpback gave us great looks. Coincidentally, another group of offshore bottlenose dolphins found us too.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
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