What a great day it was

2017 05-28 SB Channel

What a great day it was as we watched 8 humpback whales (including Rope and her calf again!), and 1,500 long-beaked common dolphins.  The day started out calm, cool and foggy, slowly got sunny with a pleasant sea breeze.

Several hundred dolphins found the boat about 1/2 – mile out from Santa Barbara Harbor and were absolutely entertaining as they circled around and rode every angle of our wake.  Eric then took a track to scour the often productive region between the rig line and Habitat.  Here over 1,000 additional dolphins found us with similar results.  This large herd was spread out and spent a lot of time feeding.

Soon the first pair of whales came up, probably enticed by all the feeding dolphin activity and associated anchovy schools.  It was Rope and her calf.  We saw these two twice, during the first sighting they mugged the boat for at least one hour.  This included rolling upside down next to our hulls, spy hopping, and generally studying their fans on board the Condor.

Moving a bit east, a trio of whales was actively lunge-feeding on the surface and anchovies were flying in all directions.  Soon Rope and her calf, plus a new, third whale also started actively surface feeding not too far away.  Their lunges were often accompanied by loud trumpet vocalizations.  What a great day it was!

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express