there she blows

Heading north from Cabo to San Carlos was a bit rough; 6-10ft. For the first time the motion didn’t affect me in waves of that size. A good portion of the crew vomited or at least was incapacitated due to the constant pitching of the vessel. Every couple hours we had a visit from our most common visitors so far, the long beak common dolphin. At one point a group of around 100-120 torpedoed in from all directions. As the evening approached, so did the real entertainment, Humpbacks! As far as two miles out we could see three humpbacks having a grand old time as the sun began to set. This was the first time I had ever seen a breaching whale so naturally I was very enthused. As we approached the amount of breaching subsided and one of the whales split off from the other two, which were now moving very quickly. Just as we concluded that the show had come to an end ¼ mile off our starboard bow the two traveling whales breached in perfect unison illuminated by a brilliant sunset! That evening around 2230 we arrived in Bahia Magdalena. As Ian and I went to the bow to open the anchor box we were startled by spouting Gray whale no less than 20 meters from the bow! A perfect end to an amazing day, and a phenomenal welcome to the breeding ground of the gray whales!

The morning of the 17^th was the best day to date aboard the Sea Bird, not only for the fact it was my 26^th bday, but mostly due to the location and activities of the morning. It happened to be transition day so instead of only 12 hours off after a 12 hour shift we enjoyed an extra 6 to adjust to the new schedule! The previous night Senor Deckhand Adam, Botsun Chris and fellow deckhand Ian and I all made plans to sacrifice a bit of sleep to take advantage of one of the crews favorite destinations; Sand Dollar Beach. Magdalena Bay is separated from the pacific by the ¼ mile wide Isla Magdalena. We loaded up a zodiac with boogie boards and headed to the beach. From there we giddily ran across the sand dunes carefully avoiding the sporadic piles of sand dollars and other shells that have accumulated over the years. The sky was free of clouds and the sun was strong. At the peak of the tallest sand dune the first view of the pacific was had! Glassy light blue water with 2-4 ft waves rolling in at 15-second intervals! Although it was a beach break there were definitely some waves holding form and ready to be shralped by the adrenalized boogie boarders freshly released from captivity! A boogie board is not a surf board but proved to be a rather exciting alternative. Just being back in water and using the basic movements as surfing completely rejuvenated me, allowing me to temporarily forget I was a slave to the boat. I had a 2 hour boogie session and had some great rides as well as took some thorough poundings! Oh how I missed being in the water! After the boogie session we were beckoned by the soft sand below the wind cut dunes. Some fun jumps and dives we had and a few funny photos were taken of us flying through the air. Then…11:45 back to the boat! A local pilot and his son were aboard to guide us through the shallow waters of the Hull Canal up to Lopez Mateos where we anchored for 2 days. The Hull Canal is extremely difficult to navigate and in places is only a foot deeper than the draft of our vessel. The pilot Alejandro has been guiding the Sea Bird through these tricky waters for over 15 years!

We were fortunate enough to locate the Gray whales on every zodiac cruise. Guests were emotional and moral was high! Good vibes on the boat after food marine life sightings! Leaving San Carlos and heading south was quite the humpback experience. We had to refrain from stopping at every sighting in order to keep on schedule. Humpbacks were breaching everywhere and we even saw one younger male tale slapping for 5 minutes straight. Gorda Banks just of of the East Cape of Baja proved to have the largest humpback population. For a good hour at any given time you could see a spout or a breacher in some direction. Now I want to see some Blues!