We are enjoying amazing fall sea conditions out here! We had smooth seas and great visability all day! We spotted a trio of Humpbacks on our afternoon trip and ~500 Long-beaked Common dolphins on our sunset trip!
On our afternoon trip, we cruised up to the north in search for any and all wildlife. We took in the views of the coastline when we spotted a massive bird pile! There were hundreds of birds diving into the water about 4-miles away from us. We pointed our nose west in hopes of catching up with all the activity. We were in luck, on our way about a couple miles from the birds, we sighted a spout! We caught up with what we thought was a single Humpback! Then a second one appeared! We enjoyed their presence as they were coming up for 1 to 5 breaths and down for 3-10 minute dives. They didn’t follow a consistent pattern, so it kept things interesting! They were mostly heading south when on our last sighting they did a U-turn and went to the north. We figured out why on their next breath cycle! A third whale popped up among the pair! They were being pretty social and for our grand finale we got great looks at all three of their flukes!
On our sunset trip, we cruised out to the southwest to the drop-off. We were hoping we would catch up with that trio of Humpbacks but instead found another huge bird pile to the west! There were at least 500 Long-beaked Common dolphins scattered about a 1/2 mile around us! We enjoyed them as they zoomed toward us to ride the bow and surf beside us! We also spotted a few cow/calf pairs! One calf in particular, was being very spunky and testing out the wake surfing! We also spotted some show-offs that breached over and over and over! We had a wonderful smooth ride in and the sunset was stunning!
We hope to see you on the next one!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
