Today was an extraordinary day on the water. With weather moving through the park, we were treated to not only great wildlife observation, but dramatic scenery as well. This morning on our way across the channel, we came upon what appeared to be a never ending procession of common dolphin. We traveled for almost 2 milesand had non-stop encounters. They were traveling to the east, just slowly meandering with what appeared to be no agenda. Always a crowd pleaser, the common dolphin steals the spot light on each and every trip with acrobatic displays and a curious eye that begs one to stare deeply back and ponder their level of intelligence. We followed a single shy Gray mid channel and as it is never our intent to hang out where we are not wanted, we left our shy whale and took up a course towards Anacapa. Upon our approach we picked up the trail on yet another south bounder and followed along for a couple of miles. This individual was very cooperative with lots of surface time affording us great views. The weather cooperated for the most part, until the shy open up and shed what remaining moisture it had on us all…it was a soaker. Funny thing about whales and rain, they don’t really seem to mind. The afternoon was equally rewarding with even better weather conditions and great observations. We did not encounter as many dolphin, but our whale was very cooperative. We picked up another south bounder near the East end of Anacapa and followed along for another couple miles. What a thrill as the weather improved and the sky became very dramatic. While I gathered few images for today…actually I gathered quite a few, but had memory card malfunction. Fortunately I had a backup with our new GoPro camera. Just getting used to it, so here are a couple images.
From the reports we are receiving from the North, looks like we are in for another great whale watching season here in the Channel Islands region. With last year’s recruitment heading south, our trips promise to offer great opportunity to view marine wildlife in a way few can offer with Channel Islands National Park and National Marine Sanctuary as your background.
See you onboard,
Capt. Frank
