[CINC] CX June 1

[thusone at aol.com]

7 Humpbacks close, including a Mom Calf,   about 15 in the vicinity and much more in the distance
3 blue whales - one fluked
10 dalls porpoise 
1 bottlenose dolphin at harbor mouth

We had one VERY friendly humpback.   Capt. Dave noted the "body language" from the onset;  how this whale approached the boat
the first time, which was every exciting.  Close.   But  a blue whale had come up a bit behind us.  Capt. Dave 
explained to the passengers that the boat would not move until we  saw where this "friendly" humpback was.
I didn't see anything, so i thought the close encounter with the Hump was over.   But sure enough, Dave's intuition proved right, that
friendly had stayed in very close vicinity and came back again & again almost touching the boat.    I have never seen such a prolonged close encounter (I'm sure the Condor crew has) .    A time or two this whale sort of just floated up right at the bow, doing the "hoochey coochey,"  a little wiggle waggle of it's whole body coming to the surface, only nothing about a whale is "little"  so the twist in that spinal column  was impressive.  And then we had the roll overs under the boat, and lots of trumpeting,  like "HELLO,  anybody there!?" 
Maybe it would have liked a cheer or two.  ha.  Close up rostrum, tubercles & blow holes.  And pecs, up close side of a fluke,  huge whale body arch at the bow, dwarfing the excited human heads at the Condor rail.  Also, this whale seemed quite  well fed and round.   No pronounced backbone here.  

The trip's beginning, motoring thru the fog, which is going up & down, now you see, now you do not, I was getting worried we would see anything.   Also, strangely to me, the waters smoothed out in the gap between Santa Cruz & Santa Rosa, which is where we found the whales.   It turned out to be a stellar whale watch day.   (& the CX dropped off some campers at Prisoners harbor, too)  

Can't wait to go out again.

Shirley Johnson
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