Here in the Santa Barbara Channel, truth be told, it’s always whale watching season. Mainly because we have resident Humpback and Orca who make the Channel Islands area their home and Blue Whales are known to feed in the region. But in the later part of the Winter you are nearly guaranteed finding whales if you look for them.

More than likely they will be Gray Whales who migate the Pacific Coast. In the Fall they head South and once the babies are born they head North. Today though, we happened to find a pod of three adults who were moving up the coast about 3 miles off shore. They would blow two or three times and then appear again several hundred yards further up the track they were on. We stayed off a respecable 100 yards or so and followed the track spotting them over a dozen times over the course of an hour. They weren’t hanging around and they weren’t feeding. In fact they didn’t really dive very deep as we could actually see them underwater most of the time. We had a spectacular time to say the least and finally moved away from them to head to our intended destination adjacent to Arch Rock off the East end of Anacapa Island for a picnic.

It’s funny. A lot of people can’t understand what the allure is of sailing. And then again, I know sailors who always have to have a destination. They get bored otherwise. For me - just let me go out beyond the breakwater. Maybe we’ll spot some whales. Maybe we’ll just listen to some good tunes and enjoy the sun and the sea. I don’t know. As long as I’m out there on the water, where anything can happen at any moment, I’m perfectly content.

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