Isla San Marcos, Baja California
We had planned a late breakfast and a lazy morning, after a couple of busy, but very fulfilling days. Someone forgot to tell the whales that we were planning to sleep in! At sunrise tell-tale spouts were spotted, and we carefully moved the ship closer to see if we could tell what kind of whale we had seen in the distance. Then again another spout, this time it was clearly the distinctive forward and off-center blow of a Sperm whale.
Oh well, an early morning wake-up call was issued, and we spilled onto the decks for great views of Sperm whale females and their young, who kept surfacing and then lolling at the surface for a few minutes before diving again. We saw dive after dive, tail fluke after tail fluke emerging from the flat calm seas as they went down again. This continued for an hour or so, and then it was breakfast time. We enjoyed breakfast and continued sailing towards Isla San Marcos.
After breakfast an enjoyable presentation by our Undersea Specialist Carlos Navarro on the Vaquita the critically endangered porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California. Immediately following his presentation we were back in the midst of another group of Sperm whales. Carlos donned his snorkel gear and headed out to try and capture some underwater footage of these magnificent creatures. A Zodiac was lowered, and off he went, in and out of the water, trying to predict the direction the Sperm whales would swim – he would slip into the waters and wait for them to swim towards him.
We all eagerly watched from the ship, wondering if he was getting any pictures, amazed at how close the whales seemed to swim by Carlos, but not really sure if our perspective was playing tricks on us, perhaps he was farther away. We would have to wait to find out.
We arrived at Isla San Marcos during lunch, went snorkeling, explored by kayaks, and took a walk up an arroyo, all back in time for recap, and to see if Carlos had any footage. The suspense was palpable, and when Carlos shared with us his footage, we could only gasp. The whales indeed swam right by him, at one point two whales swimming together split apart to swim around Carlos, he was between the two whales. As the picture shows, who was really looking at who?
We had planned a late breakfast and a lazy morning, after a couple of busy, but very fulfilling days. Someone forgot to tell the whales that we were planning to sleep in! At sunrise tell-tale spouts were spotted, and we carefully moved the ship closer to see if we could tell what kind of whale we had seen in the distance. Then again another spout, this time it was clearly the distinctive forward and off-center blow of a Sperm whale.
Oh well, an early morning wake-up call was issued, and we spilled onto the decks for great views of Sperm whale females and their young, who kept surfacing and then lolling at the surface for a few minutes before diving again. We saw dive after dive, tail fluke after tail fluke emerging from the flat calm seas as they went down again. This continued for an hour or so, and then it was breakfast time. We enjoyed breakfast and continued sailing towards Isla San Marcos.
After breakfast an enjoyable presentation by our Undersea Specialist Carlos Navarro on the Vaquita the critically endangered porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California. Immediately following his presentation we were back in the midst of another group of Sperm whales. Carlos donned his snorkel gear and headed out to try and capture some underwater footage of these magnificent creatures. A Zodiac was lowered, and off he went, in and out of the water, trying to predict the direction the Sperm whales would swim – he would slip into the waters and wait for them to swim towards him.
We all eagerly watched from the ship, wondering if he was getting any pictures, amazed at how close the whales seemed to swim by Carlos, but not really sure if our perspective was playing tricks on us, perhaps he was farther away. We would have to wait to find out.
We arrived at Isla San Marcos during lunch, went snorkeling, explored by kayaks, and took a walk up an arroyo, all back in time for recap, and to see if Carlos had any footage. The suspense was palpable, and when Carlos shared with us his footage, we could only gasp. The whales indeed swam right by him, at one point two whales swimming together split apart to swim around Carlos, he was between the two whales. As the picture shows, who was really looking at who?