[CINC] Moby Blue! Albino cx 7/26 Sunday

[ThusOne at aol.com]

CX  7/26  approx. -lots of spouts all around & some far some pretty close, 
which do you count?

2 groups commons on the way out & one group on the way in

10 Humpbacks? close some revisited

8  Blues

AND, the fog did lift!   Our first Humpback was elusive, and Capt. Mat, 
very wisely, as the day would soon prove,  said let's not use our time here - 
onward.   A little further west, we encountered the sweet spot - many whale 
spouts.      A pair of Blues stayed at the surface quite a while (3 more 
blues a little further off) and both of them fluked more than once.  

Then, all of the sudden after the 2 Blues had dove, we had a Humpback 
breach, not too far to our left.   I saw the big splash...  darn!   Just call me 
Splash; I always turn my head in time to only see the splash.    Because the 
Blues were still close (i.e., whale traffic!), capt Mat slowly turned the 
boat towards the Humpbacks.   Another breach!   Two Humpbacks, Mom & Baby.    
Baby Breached, then Mom breached,  then baby breached again, then Mom.... 
HEY, I actually saw a full breach that wasn't on the horizon, and more than 
one!    As the boat got closer, Mom and Baby were doing peck slaps and 
rolling over.   We could hear them quite clearly, and one could appreciate the 
size of those pecs and the whales.   Mom didn't just lift her peck up 
vertically and slap forward, she slapped forward, and then lifted and slapped back.   
 The whale was actually slapping at her own back!  Gimme five!  Not only 
down into the water, but up and back again.   I never knew that before.      
And Baby was copying Mom.   So cuuuuute.

And one time we went over to one or two Humpbacks and found ourselves 
surrounded!    Five of them came very close to the boat.  A larger one with a 
flatish dorsal fin ridged white, which Mat thought he had seen before.  (I may 
be getting the order mixed a little here.)   And as we were in the middle of 
the Humpbacks, one could watch those mysterious glistening small islands 
gently appearing and disappearing in the distance - the Blues.    And then an 
island erupted, white water --- a Blue making an aggressive surface.   

We  reencountered the five friendly Humpies I think once again and the pair 
of Blues who tended to fluke, and snorkel ... exhale under water again, 
too.

THE ALBINO
To cap the day off...  Mat said, well we should be turning for home now, 
but that he had seen a very light colored Blue Whale, and it might be the 
albino, and he would check it out.   They think perhaps there are 6 albino blue 
whales in the world, and one of them visits our channel, but he had not seen 
it in 3 years.

Wow, talk about ghostly glowing.   It was the albino and one could see it 
50 feet down.   Beautiful and dramatic.   It was a much brighter appearance 
than the other Blues under the water, but not as white as a Beluga whale.   
For me, I am glad Casper is still doing well and returned once again to our 
SB channel.

Whew,  what a day.   With a capacity CX, 140+ passengers from all over, 
including a musicians academy,  seemed to appreciate that, despite somewhat 
"swelly seas" they had all had the fortune to experience something very grand 
and unusual, indeed, on our planet.  And this just a few miles off the city 
of Santa Barbara.  

In addition to  Mat, Dennis & the ever gracious and lovely Amanda crewing 
the CX, our volunteers were Richard Hauge, Shirley Johnson and Morgan Coffey 
doing PID.

Best to all,
Shirley Johnson




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