<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;">Sightings<div>300 Common Dolphins-spread out thru the day</div><div>300 Off shore Bottlenose dolphins, same pod, 2 different times</div><div>1 Blue Shark</div><div>3 Orca</div><div>1 Blue Whale</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Kate Eschelbach, Susie Williams (PID) and I, along with 104 passengers, embarked on our adventure Saturday morning. Our crew was Dave as Captain, and Jacob and Jean as crew. We also had Catherine and Lee French, along with a group of people from their new venture Seafari. So we had 5 naturalists on board!</div><div><br></div><div>After a very few minutes, we ran into a small pod of commons, and played with them for awhile.</div><div><br></div><div>We appeared to be heading west,
when Captain Dave changed course, and we started heading south. He had a report of some Orca's out in the gap between Santa Cruz and Anacapa. On the way we saw more dolphin ahead, but they looked too big to be commons, and they had a more rounded dorsal fin. I thought at first they were Pacific White sided, but no white anywhere, and then Dave announced they were offshore bottlenose. My first sighting of these lively creatures.</div><div><br></div><div>Somewhere in here a few of us were lucky enough to see a large blue shark!</div><div><br></div><div>After playing with this group for awhile, we headed on out toward the gap, and sure enough, encountered Orca, a female and baby, accompanied by a sub adult male, probably her son. We watched for awhile, and then the water started churning, and we noticed a sea lion in their midst. The 3 Orca appeared to be swarming the sea lion, and we were afraid we were going to have some "Discovery
channel action" while the Orca killed the sea lion. The sea lion came over by the boat, very close, and as a result we had some really close looks at the beautiful Orca. At some point, the Orca took off in a different direction, and appeared to lose interest in the sea lion. He was a huge healthy male, and Jean surmised that the incident may have been a "training session" for the baby. Needless to say the passengers were relieved to see the sea lion spared, at least while we were there. By this time the sun was out, and we were on the back side of Santa Cruz, with a nice view of Smugglers, and the groves of trees there. We hung with the Orca for about 45 minutes, then handed them off to the Condor.</div><div><br></div><div>We continued along the back (south) side of Santa Cruz, a real treat for this naturalist, as I hadn't been the south side from as close as we were riding. It was a gorgeous day behind the islands, with bright
blue sky and the ocean an amazing color. We encountered more commons, on our way to the passage between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, and then about the time we could see Santa Rosa, we encountered a lone blue whale. The whale proved pretty elusive, but we got a few good looks. </div><div><br></div><div>We were scheduled to pick up some passengers at Prisoners, so Dave pointed the boat to the east, and we headed for painted cave. As others have noted, we went farther into the cave than I thought possible. The whole boat was dark, and we could look back and see the outline of the cave opening with the sunny skies and blue water. Very dramatic. I did talk to one young boy, maybe 12 or 13, who was very claustrophobic and not happy to be in the cave at all! He kept looking back to the opening, and since our stay was short, he recovered fairly quickly. </div><div><br></div><div>We got more looks at north Santa Cruz as we cruised down to
Prisoners. Picked up about 36 passengers there, and headed home back into gray and overcast skies. I talked to a passenger from the UK on the way back in, who had been at Prisoners mostly bird watching. I learned a lot about our sea birds, while riding back with him. </div><div><br></div><div>Another amazing day as a naturalist!</div><div><br><div> </div>Karen Sullivan<div><br></div><div style=""></div></div></div><div style="position:fixed"></div></div></body></html>