Image: Mother and calf humpback whales in the Santa Barbara Channel   2024 04-19 SB Coast   Two trips left the docks today, a 9a private trip and a public one at noon. Both experienced a high stratus grayness and very calm seas. Total sightings for the day included: 4 humpback whales, 1000 long-beaked common dolphins and 200 California sea lions.   Both trips started similarly with birdnados just 1 mile out from the harbor. Both had plenty of dophins and sea lions in the hot spots. The dolphins were spread out in the morning and formed a tight pod in the afternoon. Sea lio ..read more

Image: Gray whale calf kelping close to shore   2024 04-15 SB Channel    It was a bright, sunny afternoon with only a trace of wind. A small residual west bump was rolling down the Channel from high winds overnight. A single 12n trip had the following sightings: 4 Gray whales and 2 Humpback whales. In addition, the crew picked up 2 deflated, floating, Mylar balloons from the ocean surface.   Captain Dave and the crew headed up the coast just outside the surf line as we are in the northbound migration of gray whale mothers with calves, and they frequently travel very close ..read more

Image: a hot spot, or “birdnado” 2024 04-12 SB Coast Captain Dave and the Condor Express crew ran a single 9 AM excursion today. Conditions were moderately uncomfortable with a southeast wind blowing up against the north swell. We experienced a light to medium chop on the water, and overcast skies with periods of drizzle. Total sightings for the trip included: 2 Gray whales, 400 Long-beaked common dolphins, and 50 California sea lions. We first encountered a mother gray whale with her calf cruising along the kelp beds near Hope Ranch. We tucked in behind at a safe distance and followed the ..read more

Image: Gray whales near the beach in Santa Barbara 2024 04–10 SB Channel A single 12 noon trip found gorgeous weather with blue skies and flat glassy seas along the Santa Barbara coast again today for perfect whale watching conditions. Totals for the trip included:  2 Gray whales, 20 coastal Bottlenose dolphins, and 1000 Long-beaked common dolphins. Captain Dave and the crew headed up the coast along the beach and off of Hendry’s found two gray whales that turned out to be a mother with her little calf. There was a bit of rolling around in shallow water which made it interesting to wa ..read more

Image: humpback surface sideways lunge feeding   2024 04-09 SB Channel    Captain Dave called it a “bluebird” day. It was sunny and the ocean was flat, glass calm. We ran both a 9a and 12n trip and total sightings included” 2600 long-beaked common dolphins, 2 humpback whales and 100 California sea lions.   Two nice pods of dolphins located the Condor Express about 2 miles off Hope Ranch and we had great looks. Moving further west, a single juvenile humpback was located 4 miles off Goleta. It had a regular dive cycle and was easy to watch.   Noon brought us near the Ke ..read more

Image: humpback tail throw   2024 04-08 SB Channel    Seas were bumpy, choppy and it was windy for the 9am trip. The wind increased a little for the afternoon excursion. Total sightings for the day included: 3 gray whales, 10 humpback whales, 200 long-beaked common dolphins and 150 California sea lions.   A visiting cruise ship was anchored just outside the harbor and the morning trip got started as we watched a single gray whale adult head west near the ship. A short distance from the ship we found a sub adult gray whale.  The morning trip ended with a grand finale o ..read more

Image: our tracks today   2024 04-07 SB Channel    Captain Devin and the crew ran a 9a and a 12n excursion and stayed within 6 miles of shore both times. The morning trip took the eastern loop (as shown above), and the noon trip trended west.  Skies were sunny all day with no wind and a little residual bump on the surface. Total sightings for the day  included: 6 humpback whales, 6 gray whales, 1100 long-beaked common dolphins and 200 California sea lions. NOTE: Purple Sailor jellies (aka, By-the-Wind Sailors) are just now being seen in the Channel, having been trans ..read more

Image: a mob of California sea lions. 2024 04-06 SB Channel  Although the NOAA weather forecast was for high winds and big swell, winds were relatively light all day. We had a clear sunny sky but there was a bit of a bump on the water from the overnight winds that blew across the Channel. He was a little bit rougher on the 9 AM trip, but The bump subsided a little bit on the 12 noon trip. Sightings for each trip we’re practically identical: 25+ humpback whales and 400 California sea lions. Since we saw the same animals on both trips I’m not going to total them like I usually do. The h ..read more

Image: A mob of sea lions follow a humpback whale diving and surfacing   2024 04-02 SB Channel    We experienced calm, glassy seas and lots of humpback whales during two trips, at 9a and 12n. Total sightings for the day included: 9 humpback whales and 30 California sea lions. The crew removed one, deflated, floating Mylar balloon from the ocean surface.   We paid a visit to a hot spot southeast of the Kelp Farm on both excursions today. On the morning cruise we watched 3 individual whales that were engaged in slow motion dives and surface activity. At noon we watched 6 wha ..read more

Image: a humpback mugs the Condor Express   2024 04-01 SB Channel   We ran two trips today one at 9 AM the other at 12 noon. Both trips had clear blue skies with not much wind. There was a residual 4 foot swell from the storm that went Sunday. But all in all the weather was beautiful. Sightings today included: 1 gray whale, 5 humpback whales, and 100 long beaked common dolphins.   The first sighting of the day took place during the morning trip when we were near Campus Point. We watched a single gray whale, an adult. It was SOUTHbound! We circled around later in the trip and fo ..read more