[CINC] Condor Express March 30

[Don Gillies]

Condor started the 9AM trip with a large group of school group and their parents from Los Alamos.  It was a beautiful day with great visibility and mostly calm seas with some swell.  Just outside the harbor entrance we ran into about 100 common dolphins who entertained  the passengers with leaps and bow riding.  Capt. Matt took us south to look for humpbacks seen that way the day before.  Just past the oil platforms we came upon splashes and fins.  It was a mating pod of 3 grey whales who entertained us for 45 minutes with their rolling and fluke displays.  There was even some x-rated behavior that I will not describe in detail here. We did see one more spout at a distance that we could not find again.  Overall, an excellent trip that everyone enjoyed.

The noon trip had 65 passengers from all over the states and abroad.  We headed up the coast off shore trying to locate the mating pod but were unsuccessful.  There was a small pod of common dolphins feeding with sea lions and birds off UCSB.  Capt. Matt turned and headed east further off shore to look for humpbacks.  By 2PM he was about to turn for home when he spotted 2 spouts.  They turned out to be 2 humpbacks who put on a great show with one breach followed multiple tail thrusts and tail slaps.  We stayed with them so long we were almost an hour late getting home but no one complained.  

Rae Emmett and Larry Harris were the naturalists and I was the photo-ID.

Don Gillies
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