[CINC] Condor 12/27/11 report

[Tina Armbruster-Stephens]

(late report but definitely worth noting!)

2 Pacific gray whales
1 megapod of common dolphins (1,000 plus)
200 common dolphins for ride home


It was a beautiful, sunny warm day on the channel.  Along eastern Santa 
Cruz Island we followed two big grays for about half an hour as they 
swam steadily toward Baja, up for several minutes, then going deep for 
about 5 minutes several times.  Lots of tail lobs and waterfalls off 
flukes.  We then cruised into Chinese Harbor where two more grays were 
very close to shore but stayed with us only briefly.  Later we were 
surrounded by a pod of several hundred common dolphins, cavorting around the boat and doing some crowd-pleasing aerial maneuvers.  


It was a full boat with about 100 visitors from Palo Alto, San Fran and Santa Barbara, plus vacationers from NY, North Carolina, Missouri, Arizona and Michigan!  Everyone from out of state reveled in our weather!


Naturalists: Tina Armbruster Stephens, Carolyn McCleskey (PID) and Ken Macdonald.
Crew: Capt. Mat, Capt. Dave, Brooke and photographer Bob Perry
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