[CINC] Condor 7/11

[Karen Sullivan]

And just in case anyone was wondering, I had no idea it wasn't my day to go out, until I was getting ready to leave the harbor, called home, and my sweet husband informed me of my error.... Had I known when I got there, I would have come home, and gone out on Sunday...
If my fellow blue shirted folks knew, they were too kind to tell me....;-)


 Karen Sullivan




________________________________
From: Karen Sullivan <gksully at pacbell.net>
To: channel_islands_naturalist_corps at rain.org
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 4:02:46 PM
Subject: [CINC] Condor 7/11


Common dolphins 
200
100 moving really fast
Blue Whale- 1
Humpback whales- 10, 12, 15? 

Trip started off under foggy skies with 4 naturalists on board, Dino Dal Bon on PID, Cubby Winkel, Betsy Haywood and myself....  (turns out I was the odd man out.  I'm scheduled on tomorrows trip and got the days mixed up...what can I say, I'm old!)   I'm really glad I went as we had a great day.  Capt Mat, Dave, and Jaques did their usual excellent job.

93 passengers from Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Michigan, Vermont, Arizona, plus...and those were just the ones I talked to...

We started with a sighting of commons, not far out of the harbor.    The fog began lifting very quickly and visibility was good.  Our first whale sighting was 2 humpbacks, hanging out, coming close to the boat.  Our next sighting was a blue, no wait it's a humpback, no it's a blue, no it's both.  Beautiful sight of a blue and a humpback very close together .  It really made the size difference apparent.  The blue was rather elusive, and we were soon joined by several more humpbacks.     Stayed with them for awhile, and then Capt Mat headed off in search of more blues....Turns out we saw lots more humpies.  Everywhere.  I counted 10 who came right to the boat, at different times, and there were spouts in the distance every where you looked.  Lots of whiffs of whale breath, and one lovely sighting of whale poop -he'd been clearing eating krill.  One whale would dive but his tail flukes would stay near the surface, and it appeared he was just hanging upside
 down.....

Good deep look at Painted cave, then a quick crossing home.  We saw a group of 100+ commons traveling very very fast.  We stayed with them for awhile, and then left them to their travels. They were either running away from something, or toward something, in a big hurry.  Pretty to see.

Another lovely day in paradise.   My husband Gary has graciously offered to take the trip I was supposed to do tomorrow....

Karen Sullivan
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