[CINC] Islander 3/6

[Dick Bellman]

First and foremost, congratulations to Captain Anthony who was on his first
day back at the helm after welcoming a new addition to his family. Enjoy
the sleepless nights, Anthony.

Bottom line:
250 Common Dolphins
    4 Fin Whales
     1 Stellar Sea Lion

It was an absolutely wonderful day aboard the Islander (only a PM trip). I
was fortunate to be aboard with a large contingency from one of the Gordon
conferences.  As many of you know that creates a virtual United Nations of
passengers with guests from Croatia, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, France,
Argentina, Japan and Portugal, to name some of the countries represented.
These amazing people were here learn more about Glial Biology  (I can
actually converse, somewhat, on that topic) and Glycobiology  (now we're
speaking a foreign language).  Fortunately these individuals are always not
only brilliant but extremely nice people who don't make me feel too
ignorant.  We also had on board, non scientific people from places such as
Maryland, Utah, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Yes, I know the forecast called for rain, but again the weather forecasters
proved themselves wrong.  Calm seas, with only very moderate winds from the
southwest.  Despite almost 100% cloud cover, the viewing conditions were
very close to perfect.

Our initial sighting was the Stellar Sea Lion perched on the buoy just
outside of Ventura Harbor.  Later we were afforded great views of Common
Dolphins on the way towards Anacapa.  This followed an uneventful cruise
along the underwater cliff line.

On the back side of Anacapa, directly south of Cat Rock we encountered the
4 Fin Whales, which afforded GREAT looks over a period of approximately 45
minutes.  It appeared as if there was one Humpback in the distance,
however, we were unable to verify that.

Captain Anthony, aka "new papa" was aided by Joel and Danni who not only
took care of passengers but provided outstanding narration.  Joel is
becoming the "go to guy" for birds.  I was also happy to have another
member of the naturalist class of 2013, Roberta Soto, aboard the vessel.

Dick Bellman
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