2020 10-02 SB Channel East
Captain Colton and the crew worked completely glassy waters all day with a thin stratus layer that let a lot of sun through and made the day a bit warm for October. The course heading was, again, to the far eastern waters north of Anacapa Passage. Sightings included: 100 short-beaked common dolphins, 400 long-beaked common dolphins and 2 giant blue whales. In addition, 5 floating Mylar balloons were retrieved thus saving the lives of unknown marine animals.
The first batch of dolphins located the Condor Express as we passed by the Summerland oil rig line. There were more groups on our way out and a final pod was sighted on our trip back home to the harbor. All of the dolphins were of the long-beaked species except for those that came through the blue whale hot spot.
There were two single blue whales closely watched. Both had uncharacteristically long dive times, in excess of 20 minutes. Reciprocally, most of the surface time was long, too. A few close approaches were made by the whales and there were a couple of nice tail flukes.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
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