La Entrada to Boca de Soledad
The new day found the National Geographic Sea Bird navigating in the open Pacific off Santa Margarita Island, heading north towards Magdalena Bay; Western and California gulls, magnificent frigate birds and black-vented shearwaters flew around her. We eventually arrived to the gap between Santa Margarita and Magdalena Islands, locally known as La Entrada, where we soon spotted the first gray whales of our expedition. A few whale-watching boats from the nearby town of San Carlos moved around the cetaceans in stark contrast to the long boats, full of rowing crew, which used to chase them. In fact, it was in this very same place where in the winter of 1845-46 two American whaling ships from Connecticut—the Hibernia and the United States—discovered the abundance of gray whales in their breeding grounds, beginning an era of intense hunting.
Once inside Magdalena Bay we picked up Alejandro Camacho, our pilot that expertly took us into the Hull Canal on our way to Boca de Soledad. We were able to do some very nice bird watching from the ship as we sailed among mangroves and sand dunes, observing whimbrels, willets, brants, and marbled godwits, among many more species. Later, having left behind places with such evocative names as Devil’s Bend and Colina Coyote, we reached the area where numerous female gray whales look after their babies. Several of such pairs swam close to us as Alejandro cautiously slowed down the engines. We watched several baby whales playing around their mothers and even a few adults breaching; the gorgeous transverse and barchans sand dunes provided a magnificent background for such a show. We later anchored at Boca de Soledad and now can barely wait for tomorrow when we will get the chance to get closer views of the beautiful gray whales.
