[CINC] CX 09-21-09 Report (Sperm Whale Ahoy!)

[Christopher Carlson]

Friends, Romans, countrymen, and countrywomen,

Chris Carlson here bringing you today's Condor Express report.

Just the facts ma'am:

-1 Sperm Whale
-700-1000 Common Dolphins

Captain Mat and crew welcomed about 35 people aboard on an overcast Monday
morning. We had some from the Netherlands, Phoenix, the United Kingdom,
Colorado, but most that I talked to were very local and had read about
Sunday's awesome sightings. Well we sure didn't see the same volume of
whales that Sunday brought, but we sure had a pretty neat sighting of our
own.

Yep, about two or three miles off the coast of southern Anacapa, Capt. Mat
spotted a spout he thought might be a blue, but as we approached it became
apparent that it was not. An actual, factual sperm whale! I couldn't believe
it myself. Obviously I had never seen one in real life until today. It was
just coasting with its upper body out of the water, facing north towards
Anacapa. But just a few minutes after we approached it, it did a spectacular
deeper dive where its tail turned totally, ninety degree vertical and
dropped right down beneath the calm ocean in 250 fathoms of water.  We
waited fifteen minutes but, not surprisingly, it never came back up. Those
things can dive for well over an hour if they want to, but at least we got
to see that awesome deeper dive close up. Needless to say, I was pretty
excited to see that spectacular fluke and bragged to everybody just how rare
a sighting they witnessed. Mat said that it was the first sperm whale he had
seen aboard the current Condor Express ship, and that he had only seen a
handful in his many year career. So yeah, that pretty much made my day right
there.

We saw about four different bouts of common dolphins, one rather large one
that people went nuts over. Those dolphins can jump! The customers still got
some whale passes because of our brief encounter, but mannnnn, did they have
a real treat today! And so did I.

Chris Carlson
chrisjamescarlson at gmail.com
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