Image: A humpback near beautiful Santa Cruz Island
2023 09-02 SB Channel
It was sort of a funny day weatherwise, and a “tale of two Channels.” The skies were dark and a southeast breeze kept the coast bumpy all day. By contrast, the southern Channel, in the lee of Santa Cruz Island, was sunny and much calmer. Sightings were good: 3 humpback whales and 2500 long-beaked common dolphins.
Our track today took us to a direct southwesterly course towards the west end of Santa Cruz Island. This put us near The Lanes and west of The Buoy. Here we began our dolphin pod encounters. There were quite a few, scattered pods for the rest of our time in the southern waters. There were no mega pods to speak of.
A bit south of The Buoy, Captain Dave and the crew began a slow search to the east. Of course, more dolphin pods came to ride our bow, side and stern waves.
And just a bit west of The Buoy, our first whale encounter took place. It was a small juvenile humpback that was in travel mode, moving east. Good looks were had.
Further east we found and watched two more individual whales. The two spent time foraging below the surface, but showed nice tail flukes when up for air. After this sighting, Dave narrated a tour of the Santa Cruz Island northern sea cliffs, grottos and caves, including a trip inside the world’s longest sea cave, The Painted Cave.
On our way home we ran back into the clouds and wind.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com
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