Image: An active humpback slaps its chin.
2024 09–13 SB Channel
Skies had a light overcast for the duration of the trip. The seas calmed down a little bit and were not quite as rough as yesterday. It was generally a cool day in The Channel…time for a Condor Express sweatshirt. Captain Dave and the crew took us up the coast to an area that has been very active with feeding humpback whales about 5 miles south of Platform Holly. Sightings included: 2500 common dolphins and 6 humpback whales. I have attached a nautical chart showing our track.
As it has been all summer, we spotted our first dolphins just 1 mile off The Harbor. These were small groups of 25 to 50 individuals. Moving west to the whale zone, pod sizes increased quite a bit. The largest pod located us on our way home with at least 1000 individuals. There was lots of activity and we watched them riding our bow, side and stern waves with lots of jumping.
First we spotted a trio of humpback whales. There was some rolling around and socializing, and two of them came close to the Condor Express a couple of times for a meet-and-greet. We moved north and found another whale, but it was quickly moving to the west into the oncoming seas. We went back to the original trio. One of them breached behind the boat to our surprise. This was followed by a series of dramatic chin slaps (See photo for an example). There was more vocalization and rolling around for a while. A bit further to the southwest, we found another pair of whales. They had long down times, except for one of them that briefly swam on its side imitating a giant swordfish.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
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