[CINC] Friday on the Condor

[Scott Cuzzo]

8 humpbacks
7 blues
2 Minkes
20 Dall's porpoises
50 common dolphin
2 Mola Mola

 ><==========;>  (My patented whale art, I get a quarter every time  
you use it, ok?)

The day started out somewhat foggy, with calm seas.  We, Kate  
Eschelbach, Don Gillies (photo ID) and myself, headed out across the  
channel in search of whales.  I spotted a huge splash off on the  
horizon...and we were off!  Two more breaches off in the distance  
were seen by those who were at the bow and were especially eager to  
find whales.  As with all wildlife viewing, your chances of seeing  
things increases proportionally with the amount of time actually  
spent looking.  Like when a whale breaches, it may only happen once,  
and I for one hate the thought of missing something so exciting.  But  
this whale did breach two more times and it was fun to get a few eyes  
pointing in the right direction.

As we approached, we found lots of humpbacks.  There was a mom and  
calf, plus other pairs around, and more spouts off in the distance.   
We got lots of good looks at eight different humpbacks, plus more off  
in the distance.  Towards the end of our time here one humpback  
approached the boat closely a few times and gave everyone a big  
thrill.  So we all got to bask in the glow of a humpback whale snot  
facial.  He must have responded to the singing of "Happy Birthday",  
and came over to join the festivities.  The birthday boy was a  
teacher from a S.B. school, and he had a bunch of students along.   
They take a whale field trip every year.  At one point we took a very  
short side trip to see a group of common dolphin.

After leaving our humpbacks, we headed towards the west end of Santa  
Cruz Island.  More spouts were spotted!  And they were taller and  
straighter than the bushy humpback blow.  Then the silvery gleam of a  
big back reflected in the sun that was now out, and it was confirmed  
that we had blue whales to see!

At first there were two blues, then a third, and then a fourth added  
to this group.  They came quite close the boat a number of times, and  
sometimes spent a lot of surface time.  They hung together quite  
closely.  This was a great blue whale observation, including at least  
two blue whale tail flukes were seen.  We then went towards another  
group, which turned out to be three blues.  Oh, there were at least  
another pair of humpbacks pretty close by.  Dall's porpoises  
accompanied our blue whales.  They darted around in front of the blue  
whales, and would come by the bow of the boat when the blues were on  
a sound.

We all got to see a Mola Mola at the surface, just hanging out.  It  
was not a very big one.

On the way back we passed what I was pretty sure were two Minkes  
separately, but we did not stop.

It was a glorious day of whale watching!