Six Humpback Whales including our Friend “Rope”
Today we ran an afternoon trip from 100 pm to 530 pm with the venerable Captain Dave at the helm. The adventure took us east and then southeast for a change and this new strategy did not disappoint. Right off the bat we were surrounded by friendly common dolphins and large groups of these agile little cetaceans would ride with us all day wherever we went. Dave estimates roughly 3,000+ #dolphins were closely watched. Around mid-Channel we got into a nice group of feeding humpbacks, about 5 of them were observed, and sure enough, one of the beasts was our old pal “Rope.” Rope was especially friendly, more so than the other 4. She came close, spy hopped and did a bit of playing around in the drifting kelp paddies…all to the cheers and applause of her human fan club on the Condor Express. After a long and deep session with these humpback whales Dave ran a bit further south and we took a nice tour of the north coast of Santa Cruz Island. I should mention that is was dead flat calm and sunny all day long. The tall ship “Tole Mour” was anchored in Pelican Bay and provided a great “Kodak moment” if you can still call it that with digital technology.
On the trip back to Santa Barbara Harbor a 5th humpback whale was encountered and we stopped and watched for a while.
All in all it was a fun and gorgeous afternoon to be out on the water searching for marine life.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
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