[CINC] Tuesday, July 1st Condor Express Trip!

[Christopher Carlson]

Hey there guys!

Amateur naturalist Chris here with another report. Here's the quick rundown
for Tuesday, July 1st's CX trip:

- > 1,000 Common Dolphins
- 1 Minke Whale

It was a pretty clear day for the 41 passengers aboard, and fellow
naturalist Marty Flam and I were very happy to get out there. Captain Dave
(NOT Matt, as many corrected me in my previous report, including Captain
Dave himself! Sorry about that guys!) and crew planned to take us out to
Santa Cruz and then take a trip to where they had seen two humpbacks the
previous day. We had folks from many places, including Arizona, North
Carolina, Indiana, Denmark, Germany, and Portugal! Actually, the people from
Portugal were also on Sunday's CX trip and wanted another attempt at a
whale. About half had never been whale watching before, and a good amount of
them had a nice time riding the bow as we headed out on the fairly choppy
sea.

We saw some Common Dolphins close to outside the harbor, and we would see
several more pods throughout our trip, particularly one around 1330 or so
that had many hundreds riding along with the boat. Everyone enjoyed the
dolphins immensely. We could see the fish getting chased around, which was a
blast. And man, those guys love to jump!

We started off by heading out to Santa Cruz. It was pretty windy out there
and I sadly didn't have my CINC hat on tight enough and it had a nice, slow
trip on a wind gust to the ocean. That actually had me pretty bummed the
rest of the trip; I liked my hat! Speaking of, I gotta order a new one...
Everyone was pretty good about holding onto their hats after that one! We
were also getting pretty splashed about, especially on one side of the boat,
and I kept forgetting and got soaked pretty often. Good times on the ocean.

The island was really beautiful. We got a good look at a lot of California
Sea Lions and Harbor Seals. We took a peak inside some of the sea caves
which was pretty awe-inspiring. On the way from the island, a lot of people
took a rest inside the cabin as the left side was getting completely soaked
by the waves. We went back to the spot where a humpback mother and her calf
were spotted on Monday but we couldn't find them again. We saw some more
dolphins, including that big pod I mentioned before, but didn't see any
spouts. The food was abundant all over, but those whales were not. Capt.
Dave joked that I was the new bad luck charm, because two out of his three
whale-less trips for the year were with me on board. Oh man! Maybe it was my
cologne!

As we were heading back in the Captain spotted a very shy Minke Whale. I
never saw it myself but that is rather common with those Minkes. At least we
know that some whales are hanging out! Although we came back without seeing
another whale, there were plenty of smiling faces leaving the boat, so I was
really happy with our journey. Can't wait to get out there again! But maybe
I'll bring a four-leaf clover.

This entry is dedicated to my lost hat. Goodnight sweet prince. :-P

Chris Carlson
chrisjamescarlson at gmail.com
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