Condor Crew: Captain Dave, Colton, and Adam in the Galley
CINC Naturalists: Sue Miller & Tara Brown
PID: Rosie Romo
3000-3500 Common Dolphins
No whales
A gorgeous day in the Channel today! Hard to believe it's January! Much calmer
waters than yesterday. Passengers from all over including the U.S. and many
from the east coast who had come to California to see the Rose Parade and
decided to leave the chaos of LA and come up to our beautiful town. One couple
from Minnesota had never seen the ocean.
We headed across the channel seeing a small pod of Common Dolphins about an
hour into our trip. A short visit into Painted Cave with a couple of Ca Sea
Lions sunbathing on a rock at the entrance. Continuing west past SCI we headed
a bit north and found a huge pod of about 3000 Common Dolphins. The passengers
were in awe of the shear numbers of dolphins , their playfulness around the
boat and the speed at which they swim. We began to head back to the harbor
when another large pod of Common Dolphins headed toward us coming from the
west. Another short stop to watch their show and we continued back hoping to
see a whale in the time we had left. We saw several Ca Sea Lions
thermoregulating and a few more on the buoy but the whales were not to be seen.
As usually happens, the passengers were thrilled with the trip because of the
beautiful weather, the dolphins, Painted Cave, the Sea Lions , and hearing
about the history of the islands.
Until I board again,
Sue