At Sea and Isla San Marcos, 4/16/2014, National Geographic Sea Lion

WOW! What a day it’s been! Sunrise brought oh-so-sweet, super calm seas and bottlenose dolphins for those who rose for the first morning light. It wasn’t long until several sperm whales blows were spotted and we spent a luxurious amount of time watching them. A female with her large calf surfaced over and over giving us great, close views and terrific photo opportunities with the Baja Peninsula as our backdrop. Another cetacean, a dwarf sperm whale, was briefly spotted as well. 

We took a break from whale watching for the “Photo Essentials” presentation, but at the end we were quickly back on the bow as a large group of long-beaked common dolphins had been spotted just ahead of the ship. It was wonderful to watch these agile creatures, including many very small youngsters, as they were riding the ship’s bow, making long lunging leaps as if in a race with the ship. 

As we approached the anchorage on the northwest side of Isla San Marcos for our afternoon activities, a humpback whale breached ahead of the ship and made a few additional surfacings. After a brief siesta break, we set out for two rounds of island-based activities. Round one was for either snorkeling from the beach or kayaking. The snorkel spot was accessed through a lovely cave from the beach, and it was terrific -- remarkably warm and inviting with loads of fish, sea urchins, invertebrates, anemones, and sea stars all creating a colorful palette for the eye or underwater camera.  

Round two for the afternoon was either hiking ashore or cruising in our inflatable landing craft exploring the island and small offshore islets. Along the shoreline we had great views of brown pelicans, Brandt’s cormorants, blue-footed boobies, brown boobies, and a loud group of California sea lions.  

We returned to the ship absolutely satisfied from a wonderful day, but alas, that was not the end, the best of the day was saved for last! As the evening recap was about to begin, the bridge called to say that pilot whales had been spotted ahead. We all rushed to the bow, recap was suspended, and dinner delayed, as we watched pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins as all enjoyed that last bits of the day. The dolphins were leaping to superlative heights, not one at a time, but four or five or more. Pilot whales would occasionally pop up from below in a half breach only to smash their heads down with a startling splash. One female with what appeared to be a tiny baby tucked in tight to her side, repeatedly surfaced close to the bow. Our Chief Mate, Billy O’Brien, did a fabulous job steering the boat on a perfect parallel course with the whales. It was all quite incredible, and it was only the subtle beckoning of a delicious Mexican Fiesta dinner, and ultimately sunset, that finally drew the last of the diehard observers indoors after a long, and enormously satisfying day.