Captain's Blog

Hello whalewatchers: Happy Valentines day! We had a wonderful day with great weather, sunny skies ,and calm seas. Punta Colorado was beautiful as usual at sunrise. The group enjoyed the walk and snorkel session with warm water and good visibility. We saw a big herd of common dolphin after leaving the island, along with lots of manta rays jumping and on the surface. A few small humpbacks and a Bryde’s whale cow and calf filled in the afternoon. We ended the day with more common dolphin and a tail-lobbing humpback in the moonlight. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Team Searcher
Today’s picture is one of the groups of common dolphin.

Holy Humpbacks! Here’s the female humpback next to Searcher on her back. The pair spent an hour and a half with us. and all the conditions were right with calm seas, clear water and sunny skies for good lighting. I’ll be sharing several other photos and videos after returning to San Diego. Headed north tonight. Looking forward to tomorrow,
Team Searcher

Hello all,
What a morning! We have been drifting at the Gorda Banks area now for an hour or more with the same pair of humpbacks!. Needless to say everyone has enjoyed close up views of these remarkable whales. SD cards are full, and GoPro bateries are dead! We all got our exercise for the day running back and forth, from side to side, and bow to stern. We have seen this in the past and we are still amazed as to why these whales were curious enough to stay with us. No explanation, just enjoying the moment. I decided to get another cup of coffee and captured the picture from the galley with Sue Schott from Canada in the foreground and the female humpback flukes in the frame. I have other photos to share later but I couldn’t resist this one.
More later, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We have great weather today with very light winds and calm seas. We have been busy watching humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins and loads of sea turtles. We are sure we are seeing green and loggerhead turtles, and while we were drifting we noticed all the salps in the water which are food for the turtles. We came across a lot of birds on the water and when we got close, we realized they were all northern fulmars with all three phases present: dark, intermediate and light. This is something we don’t see very often….always something new to experience on these trips!
Today’s picture is of a  pair of humpbacks and a bottlenose dolphin in the same frame.
More later, Team Searcher

Evening addition: What a day we have had–plenty of wildlife to look at today! Humpbacks, blues, and fin whales along with bottlenose dolphin, lots of turtles, a few sunfish, northern fulmars, frigate birds, tropic birds, shearwaters…all in one day. The blue and fin whales were feeding on the surface and a wonderful sunset to finish the day. Oh, and the weather was awesome. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We had a geat day with plenty of close encounters for everyone. We also had great weather with light winds from 11am until we left the lagoon. Currently we have good travelling weather. The galley is buzzing with chatter from all about the day’s events–it was a very active day all around. The beach was wonderful as well. There’s something about being the only visitors on the beach. It is very special. Today’s picture is of the great sunset.
More tomorrow, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: Our midday report from Laguna San Ignacio has much better weather to start the day today. Last night we had a wonderful “lights out” time–lots of stars and Jupiter and its moons. The whales are very active this morning with lots of breaching and mating behavior. Today’s picture is of an adult breaching just off the bow.
More later, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: It’s midday in Laguna San Ignacio and we are enjoying multiple gray whales around the Searcher. Luckily the wind has diminished at lunch time. We had difficult conditions upon arrival but not enough to impact the first panga trip. It’s great to be back in this special place. There are a lot of gray whales here now. More than last trip even.
More later, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We had a blustery day at Islas San Benito. The island is still in bloom and the beaches appear to be full of elephant seals. I took my usual walk up to both lighthouses–the decomissioned one and the new one at the top of the island. Today’s picture is of the old historic lighthouse with Fresnel lens in it. Unfortunately the building is deteriorating but the lens is in good shape. A goal of ours is to someday propose a joint venture with the Mexican government to have the old lighthouse restored. It is just in the idea stage but we are hopeful.
We finished our day with some whalewatching east of San Benito. The conditions weren’t the greatest but we got a good look at a few fin whales, and the grand finale was a juvenile blue whale half that was breaching and lunging and travelling at a pretty good rate of speed. We had some good looks in the binoculars at a distance. There was a tremendous amount of life with hundreds of Cassin’s auklets, gulls and shearwaters as well. Oh I almost forgot the peregrine falcon that was divebombing on Cassin’s auklets off the bow. Everyone enjoyed the island.
More tomorrow, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We started our day with a group of long-beaked common dolphins on our way to Islas Todos Santos. At the island we saw the brown pelicans in full breeding plumage and hundreds of birds in the colony on the island. There were seven female northern elephant seals with pups and a single male on the beach, with a few harbor seals as well. We saw California sea lions on the rocks off the island. The peregrine falcon was in the usual spot on the highest point on the island. We did see one pelagic commorant in flight.
After leaving the island it didn’t take long to see our first whale–a single humpback. A little further south we saw a trio of gray whales heading south and we had great looks at them. We came across a group of 5 or 6 gray whales that appeared to be headed north but we weren’t sure of that. We had a change in the conditions with some northwest wind and swell so it made it hard to follow them. The wind increased throughout the day but we did see 7 Laysan albatrosses and lots of shearwaters and fulmars. We can’t forget the Scripps’ murrelets sitting on the water.
More tomorrow, Team Searcher