[CINC] What Month is this? Or July 5th on the Condor...

[Karen Sullivan]

Sightings 

1 Gray Whale (yes, you read that right, read on)
3 Humpbacks
2 Blue Whales
Many Common dolphins
1 Mola Mola

So, as we are leaving the harbor with a boat full of passengers this morning, a marine mammal was sighted just as we were saying goodbye to the sea lions at the buoy...  Thinking it was a Minke, Capt Dave stayed around to see if we could get it look.  It turned out to be a Gray Whale heading north! Very late!  Apparently the parties were really good in Mexico, and this young whale was reluctant to leave.... or ?   Dave told everyone he had never seen  a gray whale in July, and Bob Perry tells me he got lots of pictures of it.  If he hadn't I wouldn't have reported the sighting because no one would have believed me!

From there we ran into many groups of dolphins, found our first 2 humpbacks, one of which we stayed with for awhile.  Almost completely dark fluke (no white on pectoral fins either) but it kept looking like it was doing a deep dive, showing us the fluke, and then popping back up right away.  After awhile we headed off in search of more adventure.  After looking for another Minke that about 10 people saw, we found another humpback, this one coming very close to the boat and "slime-ing" the passengers with lovely humpback breath...

Headed to SCI and a lovely look inside painted cave.  As we headed in there were probably 10 kayaks coming out of the back of the cave, complete with headlamps.  Pretty cool.

Heading back we came upon some blue whales.  They were spread out and kind of elusive, but we did follow one big whale traveling very fast and creating a lot of white water when he surfaced.

By that time we were already late, so Capt Dave headed the boat back in for a late arrival.  Eric and Tasha rounded out the CX crew doing a great job as usual.  


Very happy passengers from around the US, and England.  Fellow naturalists Gary Sullivan on PID, and Ralph Daniel and I had a good day, on smooth seas with overcast skies which cleared up just as we made the harbor.

Another great day in paradise.

Karen Sullivan
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