2015 09-08 SB Channel

Not much of a swell in the Santa Barbara Channel today, which made it nice for everyone on board the Condor Express. It was bright, sunny and....you guessed it...we're having another heat wave. Of course, during a summer heat event like this, the "place to be" is out on the water looking for marine life. A light breeze kicked-in after noon too.

Not long after leaving Santa Barbara Harbor, Captain Dave put us on a stretched-out pod of long-beaked common dolphins. They always look so nice in our Santa Barbara cobalt clear water. These little cetaceans were heading east, which led us to our first sightings of tall spouts. Before long we had visited and had solid looks at 8 humpback whales. One of them was our pal "Top Notch." Another whale found one of the many detached floating paddies of giant kelp and let it trail across its back and tail flukes. Humpback whales kelping is always an amazing sight. While we enjoyed the humpbacks we found, a large Minke whale circled the boat.

Around noon Dave headed east in hopes of finding a blue or a fin down in the eastern Channel. The trip was smooth with the wind behind us, and although no more large cetaceans were found to the east, a mega-pod containing another 1,500 dolphins kept everyone at attention for a long time. This pod contained many dolphin calves of all sizes swimming around their mothers.




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