A cruise ship anchored off Santa Barbara serves as a backdrop for a humpback whale tail fluke. photo: Bob Perry CondorExpressPhotos.com
The sun shines on Gray Whales and Humpbacks too !
It was foggy with low clouds until our CINC Naturalists Valerie and Carolyn showed up and brought the sunny skies with them prior to the Condor Express departing Santa Barbara Harbor today. We ran two trips, one at 12 noon and the other at 3pm, and the sun shined brightly on both adventures. It was simple math, 2 + 2 = 4 on the noon excursion…. two gray whales and two humpback whales. The gray whales were a bit shy and had long-ish down times, but were nonetheless fun to see. Just a bit offshore from the gray whales we next followed 2 nice humpback whales as they meandered to the east. There were lots of tail flukes to draw ooo’s and aaah’s from the humans. There were more spouts about a mile south of our location but we ran out of time.
On the 3pm adventure there was a total of 3 gray whales and 800+ common dolphins. We followed one gray whale from Leadbetter Beach west, then left to play with the dolphins. Later we got situated on a mother and calf gray whale up near Counter’s Point (formerly known as Coal Oil Point until Michael Smith and his whale counters renamed it about 5 or 6 years ago). The cow-calf pair were very regular in their westward migration with 4 minute down times and no real tail fluking going on. We said good by and bon voyage to the pair up around Naples Reef and got back to the dock 45 minutes late.
It was a very fun day with solid sightings. Both the 12 noon and 3pm trips are open tomorrow.
You never know, do you…
Bob Perry Condor Express
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