Sep 17 2008

Fin Whales 2008

Published by at 07:00 under Sailing

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Fin Whale Santa Barbara Channel

“Here we are again” 3 miles or so south of Santa Cruz and “here they come” … again, a pod of Fin Whales. These Cetaceans are second in size only to the Blue Whale, which are also around right now.

We were on our Annual Boys’ Night Out sail – the Bosun, my son Tom and me. We’d gotten underway from Coches Prietas about 0900 last Friday in a 10 knot breeze and had been sailing about an hour, when a whale crossed our track. We’d been talking about last year’s trip when we’d been surrounded by a pod of 8-10 Fin Whales, wondering if it could possibly happen again. Fin Whale Approaches Sancerre

And here they were, though a different set. One adult we named Stretch, and two somewhat smaller critters – Floppy for his/her folded dorsal fin and Stubby for his/her truncated fin. We’ve got film and hundreds of stills which we will distill in to something worth watching in the next several weeks.

—————- OTHER NOTES —————-
The Local Notice to Mariners – LNM – announces dredging (HOORAY) at Channel Islands Harbor and a new chart for our area. Details below:

Dredging -Manson Construction Corp. will commence dredging from 24 Sep to 24 Nov 08 at the Channel Islands Entrance Channel in approximate position 34-
09-24N 119-13-41W. Dredge H.R. MORRIS, M/V PUP, M/V CUB, M/V RENEGADE, and D/B FREYA will be monitoring VHF-FM Ch. 16 and 67.
Mariners are advised to transit the area with caution only after making passing arrangements with the vessels on scene. For more details or
comments contact Frank Bechtolt at 562-762-5367.

——————————————

Chart Port Hueneme to Santa Barbara;Santa Barbara;Channel Islands Harbor and Port Hueneme;Ventura

Scale 1: 50,000; New edition (29 ed, 8/1/2008) due to numerous Notice
to Mariner changes, hydrographic changes and topographic changes.
This NOAA chart is now available in both the Print-on Demand and digital
raster formats. See http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/dole.htm for
details. The corresponding traditional paper chart will be available in two
to eight weeks.

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