A spectacular noon trip that started out with a few dramatic rain squalls in the Santa Barbara Channel and in the mountains above Monticeto, but ended with calm seas and mostly sunny skies. A bit of rain did wash over us as the edge of a squall passed nearby. What beautiful vistas we had out there with the extremely clear above water visibility…a real privilege to be on board today for sure.
We ran up the coast (to the west) until our sharp-eyed deckhand Augie found us a pair of northbound migrating adult gray whales about two miles or so offshore from Isla Vista. The #whales were very regular in their breathing habits and as a bonus they fluked-up on every dive. Lots of great photo opportunities.
Along the way we encountered 5 or 6 small pods of long-beaked common dolphins with perhaps 135 total seen, and a pod of about 50 scattered Pacific white-sided dolphins too. It was a great trip with fantastic “weather.” (If you are reading this from someplace other than southern California, please excuse my exuberance about the rain…we’re in a drought period !)
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
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