Boca de Soledad, Magdalena Bay
The Sea Lion sat at anchor all day and night today just inside ‘the Boca’ (the mouth), one of Magdalena Bay’s few outlets to the sea. In nice juxtaposition to an oceanic realm moving about us as we’ve experienced voyaging hundreds of miles so far this week, we remained fixed and observed the natural world cycling about us. The just-waning full moon and sun switched horizons at dawn and dusk, the ship shifted her orientation into the tidal currents every six hours, the winds blew as they might, and an everchanging cast of California gray whales paraded about.
Here where flood and ebb tides funnel water between a San Francisco Bay-sized lagoon system and the Pacific Ocean, the strong tidal currents seem to moderate the behavior of the gray whales. The whales will orient facing into a prevailing current. Mothers take newborn calves for spins around more protected areas of the lagoon, giving the little whales-in-training swimming lessons and introductory courses in boats full of people.
Throughout a full day of Zodiac excursions, we experienced excellent early-season gray whalewatching. Half a dozen new calves were seen, including very recently born whales, as evidenced by awkward swimming and the presence of fetal folds. The babies rode alongside their mamas, surfacing quickly and lifting their heads in order to keep up. Some calves rolled around on the broad backs of their mothers and turned sideways in the water with eyes wide to look better at the humans.
Adult single grays milled about each other and engaged in brief bursts of activity in what we supposed to be reproductive intrigues. Flourishes of spyhops took observers by surprise, as the whales, even two in tandem, would rise vertically, lifting their gray tapered heads up out of the water.
Towards the end of the day, one playful whale was encountered riding on its side and even upside down at the surface in and amongst bottlenose dolphin companions. This large puppy dog of a whale approached a Zodiac, lifted its flukes up off the bow, then spun under the boat and dumped a tail-load of water onto the deck, anointing excited whale watchers.
We celebrated the day’s experiences with an onboard Mexican fiesta of local music and nourishment, as the flows of nature moved about us here at anchor among the gray whales.
The Sea Lion sat at anchor all day and night today just inside ‘the Boca’ (the mouth), one of Magdalena Bay’s few outlets to the sea. In nice juxtaposition to an oceanic realm moving about us as we’ve experienced voyaging hundreds of miles so far this week, we remained fixed and observed the natural world cycling about us. The just-waning full moon and sun switched horizons at dawn and dusk, the ship shifted her orientation into the tidal currents every six hours, the winds blew as they might, and an everchanging cast of California gray whales paraded about.
Here where flood and ebb tides funnel water between a San Francisco Bay-sized lagoon system and the Pacific Ocean, the strong tidal currents seem to moderate the behavior of the gray whales. The whales will orient facing into a prevailing current. Mothers take newborn calves for spins around more protected areas of the lagoon, giving the little whales-in-training swimming lessons and introductory courses in boats full of people.
Throughout a full day of Zodiac excursions, we experienced excellent early-season gray whalewatching. Half a dozen new calves were seen, including very recently born whales, as evidenced by awkward swimming and the presence of fetal folds. The babies rode alongside their mamas, surfacing quickly and lifting their heads in order to keep up. Some calves rolled around on the broad backs of their mothers and turned sideways in the water with eyes wide to look better at the humans.
Adult single grays milled about each other and engaged in brief bursts of activity in what we supposed to be reproductive intrigues. Flourishes of spyhops took observers by surprise, as the whales, even two in tandem, would rise vertically, lifting their gray tapered heads up out of the water.
Towards the end of the day, one playful whale was encountered riding on its side and even upside down at the surface in and amongst bottlenose dolphin companions. This large puppy dog of a whale approached a Zodiac, lifted its flukes up off the bow, then spun under the boat and dumped a tail-load of water onto the deck, anointing excited whale watchers.
We celebrated the day’s experiences with an onboard Mexican fiesta of local music and nourishment, as the flows of nature moved about us here at anchor among the gray whales.
