Trip Reports

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!

Hello whalewatchers, We had great travelling last night with calm seas and light winds. This allows us to visit one of our favorite spots in the Sea of Cortez. Punta Colorada, Isla San Jose. We arrived just as the sun was coming up and so we had a chance to see the beautiful red cliffs here. This morning’s picture is of the cliffs with the shadow of the Searcher at the bottom of the cliffs. After breakfast everyone wiil have a chance to go for a hike in a wonderful canyon and after another chance to snorkel.
More later, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: Well our luck continues to be good! We started our day in the Gorda Banks area with humpbacks singing over the PA system, thanks to our hydrophone. Several humpbacks were in the area, so it was hard to decide which whales to watch. Since we had several whals close by we just sat there and let them come to us. There was a group of 6 whales, including a cow /calf pair, that stayed relatively close for about 30 minutes and then there was a trio that were showing off a bit. We went towrds them and they were tail-lobbing! They stayed with us for close to an hour and we had some close encounters with the whale right next to and under the boat. What show! After they decided to leave, we headed north to see if we could find more whales performing. There were several whales breaching in the distance, and as we see sometimes when you get in the area of the breacher, they stop and so we continued north. There had to be 70-80 humpbacks in the area we worked this morning. It was great. I forgot to mention the weather was calm and sunny. The ocean was clean and blue so it was easy to see the whales below the surface, just like yesteday with the blue whale. I think the whales like us…
We are headed to Bahia Los Frailes for a walk and a snorkel. The water temp is 73 degrees or 21 degrees Celsius.
More later, Team Searcher
Today’s picture is a humpback on the surface, upside down and very close to the boat. Note the pleats in the throat.

Hello whalewatchers: We had a nice afternoon with awesome weather–clear skies and warm temps–and we saw a few more humpbacks, for a total of 15 humpbacks, 3 blue whales, and 3 gray whales. We also saw a group of bottlenose dolphin, and then to finish the day a large herd of long-beaked common dolphin–at least 3000 animals. A nice way to end a phenomenal day.
Looking forward to more humpbacks tomorrow. Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We have had a busy morning outside Bahia Magdalena. We have seen gray, humpback and blue whales so far this morning, with common and bottlenose dolphins too. In addition sea turtles, boobies and more. We just concluded a session following a blue whale and due to the conditions and the fact the whale stayed close to the surface, we were able to follow the whale and see it the entire time even after it  dove. That doesn’t happen frequently where a whale stays that shallow that you can see it continuously. We spent at least an hour and a half with the whale and the last half hour it was close to the surface. Wow! Today’s picture is self explanatory. (blue whale on the bow)
Thanks to Captain Aaron for spotting that whale from about four miles away.
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: Another great day today! We finished the day with a trip to the beach for part of the group. For those people that didn’t get enough whalewatching, there was a trip for them as well. It is always great to go to the beach and take a walk on some of the most pristine beaches in Baja–to be the only person to leave footprints that day is pretty special.
There is a dead whale on the beach so the group got a chance to see that. It measures 44 feet long. It’s sad to see mortality like that, but that is nature.
On a good note Stephen Swartz came by and reported 91 single whales and 31 cow calf pairs for a total of 153 gray whales in San Ignacio–good numbers for January 27th!
This afternoon’s picture is our pangas and a few passengers on the beach. Note the pretty weather clear skies and warm temperatures.
Headed south tonight.
Team Searcher

Hello all: We had a great day in Laguna San Ignacio with plenty of whales in the lagoon and everyone got to see all the different behaviors–mating, breaching, spy-hopping, cows and calves, and of course the whale that visited the Searcher twice today and liked the anchor line. The picture is of our visitor spyhopping right next to the boat.
The weather was great with light winds, sunny skies and a great sunrise and sunset.
More tomorrow, Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers:
Within 15 minutes of anchoring here we had a gray whale visit us and is rubbing on the anchor rope. It is a single whale and the gender is unknown until we get a better view. What a magical place this is! While entering the lagoon we had to slow daown several times to let the whales pass by. There are a lot of whales in the entrance. The weather is awewsome with sunny skies and light winds. Everyone is currently out in the pangas for their first trip.
More later, Team Searcher
My picture today is a gray whale with Chef Charles on the bow. Very cool!

Hello all,
We have had a fantastic day with great weather–sunny skies, light winds and calm seas. Everyone had a great hike on the island with lots of northern elephant seals, ospreys and the highlight was the flowers! There obviously has been enough rain to make the island green and yellow and purple with all the different plants in bloom. Island mallow, Encelia, Mammaliaria cactus, Agaves and more. What a day. There is a research project going on in full force. It seems to be a two-fold project studying alcids and savannah sparrows. There is also an effort to eradicate rats in several areas of the island.We were told the sparrows are having problems with the rats and so they have been captured and placed in an aviary behind the village. It is good that a conservation group is working on the island to preserve what is going on there. More details tomorow as we will have a disscussion this evening and gather as much detail as possible and report back.
We finished the day with a quick sighting of a humpback whale and then right at sunset (with a green flash) 10 or 12 gray whales off the south end of Cedros island.
Headed to Laguna San Ignacio! Yippee! Arriving there tomorrow after breakfast. Can’t wait. Team Searcher