[CINC] Condor Express 8-9-09

[Toni Bailey]

Hello Everyone...Great day in the channel!

 

Here's the tally:

 

800 Common Dolphins

100 Rissos Dolphins

16 Humpback Whales logged  / 23 total sightings total including those in the
distance

1 Fin Whale

Many scene stealing Sea Lions (gotta love those Sea Lions!!)

 

The Condor Express left the harbor with 127 passengers and fellow
naturalists Kevin Bailey (PID) and Lisa Collier.    Captain Dave, Dennis and
Jacques made up the crew of the Condor Express.  Passengers came from points
all over the world including Germany, Croatia,  France, UK, Colorado and
Northern California.   We had the challenge of heavy fog for most of the
trip, however, Captain Dave met the challenge magnificently and found a pod
of common dolphins very quickly.  Next, a large pod of Rissos dolphins found
us and gave us a real treat with tail lobbing and many full breaches.  They
stayed around the boat and many came very close to the boat.  I have not
seen such gregarious behavior from Rissos Dolphins before.  Not to be
outdone, a number of California Sea Lions showed up to steal the show.  We
had a wonderful sea lion performance to compete with the Rissos Show.  It
was kind of like a three ring circus with several humpback whales swimming
into the ring.   The humpies did a great job stealing the show back from the
sea lions.  They surfaced very near the boat, so close we could almost touch
them.  We even got a good whiff of the whale breath!    We then came across
another pair of Humpies who also stayed near the boat.   After the 2nd group
of humpies..we had the show stopper..a fin whale showed up surfacing very
near the boat many times.     Many passengers were hoping for blue
whales..but the fin whale was an even better treat for all!!  Thanks to Dave
and the crew of the Condor Express for bringing out the Fin Whale!   It was
time to head home, but the show wasn't over yet.   We came across two more
groups of humpback whales and even got some more whale breath.  Now it was
time to go home.but wait.there's more.   We finally found a large pod of
around 500 common dolphins with many jumping completely out of the water.
The passengers were very excited to see this much action on such a foggy
day.   It was finally time to head home for real.  On the way back to the
harbor, there was a distress call from a boater who was in trouble.  The
boater was not sure where they were and the crew of the Condor Express
changed course slightly to aid in the search for the vessel.   Once we heard
that the harbor patrol had located the vessel and all was well, we finally
headed back to the harbor.  The fog never lifted during the trip, but thanks
to all of the creatures in the channel, we had a wonderful day despite the
weather conditions. 

 

Toni Bailey

 

 

 

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