[CINC] Condor Express 7/14

[Dino Dal Bon]

7 Humpbacks
2000 Commons
An epic day on the Condor Express today.
Even with the threat of gale force winds in the afternoon, Capt. Mat decided to go out toward the West. At a bit more than half way, we saw a lone Humpback going at a fast pace toward the West, didn’t want to have anything to do with us. So, Capt. Mat had a hunch that it might be going to a group of whales further to the West. Sure enough, about 2-3 miles further West, we saw multiple spouts and a couple of breaches. We headed toward the sightings and found a feeding frenzy happening, with a lot of birds, dolphins and 5 Humpbacks. At first 3 of the humpbacks came toward the CX and started a nice mugging. After about 15 minutes, one of them broke loose and went back to feed. The other 2 stayed around the CX for another 25 minutes, rolling, trumpeting and allowing guests know how nice their breath can be. At one point, both whales performed what appeared to be a synchronized rolling within feet of us. After about a total of 40 minutes of mugging the CX,
 the whales no longer seemed interested, and we set our way home.
Coming back, the ride was much smoother, so it was a nice return to harbor. We did see one lone brief sighting of another Humpy, but it had a long downtime, so we didn’t spend time with it.
With me were fellow naturalists Debbie Shelley and Vivi Teston
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