Day 14 & 15 - Santa Barbara feelings and magical encounters at sea 🐋

On Day 14, we started with a short running round and then spent a cozy day in Santa Barbara. We lounged on the beach, wandered through the beautiful, well-kept downtown, and simply went with the flow. In the evening, we went out to eat while enjoying the sunset at the beach.

We really like Santa Barbara – it’s clean, quiet, stylish, and wonderfully empty. The climate is pleasant, the Spanish-style architecture is beautiful – a city where you feel at home right away.

Day 15, our last full day in Santa Barbara, was a special highlight for us: We had booked a whale-watching tour with the Condor Express – a half-day trip out to the open sea that left a deep impression on us.

After a cozy breakfast with croissants and coffee, we boarded around 10 AM. The atmosphere on the boat was relaxed, the crew professional and very friendly. Particularly nice: Two older, volunteer nature enthusiasts and hobby photographers shared many interesting insights about marine life in the Santa Barbara Channel Bay during the trip – with a lot of passion, heart, and humor.

About an hour after departure, it suddenly became completely quiet – the engine was turned off. The captain announced over the speaker: “We have two humpback whales right in front of us.”

What happened next is hard to put into words. Right in front of the bow, two enormous humpback whales appeared. Calmly, almost silently, they glided through the water, came closer – and then swam alongside our boat for over half an hour. It felt as if they were looking directly at us. Their presence was so peaceful, so powerful, and so close – we were immediately filled with goosebumps and moved to tears.

But this was just the beginning: We reached an area about 12 miles off the coast that turned out to be a “hotspot” that day – with a true natural spectacle.

Amid countless seabirds – even so-called “birdnados,” spiral swarms of birds above the water – large groups of dolphins swam there, around 3,000 animals, moving around the boat in several groups of hundreds, playing, jumping out of the water, and dancing with the current.

And in between: a total of 20 humpback whales, of which we could observe 15 up close. Some swam in tight social groups, rolling over one another, diving and surfacing again – almost like in slow motion. Others passed by calmly or came right to the boat.

A moment we’ll never forget: Two whales surfaced simultaneously right in front of our boat – and executed a double breach. Both leaped powerfully out of the water at the same time. A scene like out of a nature film – rare, magnificent, beautiful. The whole boat held its breath. Unfortunately, we could only capture this moment in our memory, not in a photo, as they appeared before us so suddenly.

The captain repeatedly slowed down or stopped the engine completely to give the whales room to move freely – and us the chance to be very close to these animals in their natural environment.

After over four hours at sea, we returned to the harbor full of impressions. We sat down in a small café and tried to let everything that had happened sink in. We were simply grateful – for that moment, for that encounter, for that day.

Back at the Airbnb, our lovely hostess welcomed us, and we chatted a bit more about the trip. Then we rested for a while before heading back to the beach in the evening to enjoy the sunset over the Pacific.

In the small outdoor kitchen of our guesthouse, we later prepared a fresh salad and let the day wind down quietly under the palm trees, accompanied by the bubbling of the fountain, the humming hummingbirds, and the purring cats.

Now we lie flat, but very, very happy and grateful in bed – filled with the most impressive natural experience of our trip. 🐋