They’ve had a busy morning already with sightings of gray whales, humpback whales, laysan albatross and other seabirds, but they have some wind this afternoon and are going to keep heading south, down wind for a more comfortable ride. All is well with passengers and crew…a more full report will follow this evening!
They are currently enjoying Risso’s dolphins this morning, and that adds up to 12 species of cetaceans in one trip! Let’s see if they can add another this afternoon for a baker’s dozen.
Dear whalewatchers; Another fantastic day today! We had a great walk at Bahia Agua Verde after a calm night on the anchor there. Lots of different birds to look at with the highlight being a vermillion flycatcher. After leaving the bay we came across another species of balleen whale–a minke. We just keep adding to the cetacean list each day. We travelled for awhile and came upon another big blue whale for a few looks and decided to get back down to the area where we were two days ago. we were rewarded by multiple sperm whales on the surface. No telling how many but there were quite a few. The crew did a great job again spotting these whales from along way away. We bypassed a breaching humpback and a group of pilot whales to get close to the sperm whales while they were on the surface. We stayed with these whales for at least 2 hours. It was awesome!
The crew saw more spouts further south in the San Jose channel and so we went towards them and we came across a group of five sperm whales on the surface we stayed until they dove and saw three flukes at once. Could it get any better? Not sure how.
Our last sighting has been a humpback feeding with a few bottlenose dolphin joining in.
What an incredible day. We are finishing it off with margaritas and a buffet on the back deck. Party time! Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: What a great day! The island was great! The weather is fantastic! We left the island and the first whale we saw was sperm whale. It was a single male that was on the surface for a long time. We waited for it to resurface and unfortunately we had to wait for 50 minutes and then we had to travel 3 miles to get close to the area. The whale was down again for another 50 minutes and we only had to travel 2 miles to get close and I think everyone got a view in the binoculars or the telephoto lens. We elected to continue on and see what the rest of the afternoon would bring. We found lots of bird life with dolphins and a couple of small humpbacks. We were close to Isla Monserate in the area that we traditionally see lots of life.
One humpback lunged through the bait ball with the pelicans, boobies, gulls and dolphins were feeding on. Quite a sight!
Today’s picture is from the island–the famous (practically) endemic yellow-footed gull.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We have another wonderful day in the Sea of Cortez at Isla Santa Catalina and a nice hike in the arroyo. The island is pretty green and the trail is a little over-grown in spots. There’s lots of beautiful cactus and a few flowers. A few people went for a snorkel and some people went on a “Krazy Koastal Kruise with Kapt Kenny” (and Capt John).
Not sure how we are going to match yesterday but we will give it a go.
This morning’s picture is from the arroyo with the Sea of Cortez in the background. What a lovely day.
More later, Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: After a great morning at Punta Colorada, we went out to look for whales. The crew did a masterful job at spotting today–we had an incredible afternoon. We started with a blue whale and stayed with it for around an hour. This blue whale was a big animal, much bigger than the blue whale we saw off Mag Bay. The crew spotted some other spouts in the distance where belonged to a pod of pilot whales. We spent 45 minutes with pilot whales and decided to see what the other whales were in the area. We saw a pair of fin whales, a Bryde’s cow/calf pair and a breaching humpback whale in the distance! Not bad for a 3-hour period. We finished the day with a surface-feeding blue whale. This whale was really big. We stayed with the whale unti it was dark and then we started motoring towards Isla Santa Catalina. We had quite an afternoon with a picture of pilot whales close to the boat.
I forgot to mention all the manta rays we saw jumping. Wow!
Team Searcher
p.s. In late-breaking news, I just got word that they are seeing bow-riding dolphins in the bioluminescent water tonight–a biological light show!
