[CINC] Condor Express 6/23/2013

[Kevin Bailey]

The WOW factor continues . . .

We never even made it to the shipping lanes . . . only about ½ way there

Soon after leaving harbor Dino saw a spout and when we got to the action we
saw 2 humpbacks with about 6 more in the area

Many tail flukes were seen all day

Many breaches – 1 close to front the of the bow, another full body breach
just off to right of the bow

Huge area with zillions of sooty’s, thousands of common dolphins, hundreds
of gulls, dozens of sea lions and of course the big guys  

Several pec slaps with waves to the crowd of about 90 from all over

Other behaviors were the whales rolling with tail in air in all positions –
you could imagine it was chasing after bait fish and using its big tail at
surface for maneuverability 

3 Mola Mola seen

1 whale did 3 approaches immediately next to boat in the exact same area (5
o’clock on boat) – he came up at the back of boat, trumpeted, and swam
around the boat and resurfaced in the exact location all 3 times

At one point the people at the bow were pointing at “the whale” and they
were all pointing in different directions – we were surrounded!

We later saw a cow/calf pair – calf probably born 6-8 mo ago

We saw our friend Rope with another whale – not a calf

The sun came out in the channel (with nice seas) but it was cloudy on shore
when we left and when we returned to the harbor

Total whale count – official number is 12; in the area was easily 16+

I had some really interesting conversations with people including a couple
from Sweden and a family from London

Amazing Day all around

Dino on PID

Toni as other naturalist

With Mat, Dave and Cassidy

 

Kevin Bailey

 

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