Isla San Marcos and at Sea, Gulf of California, Mexico
With freshly brewed mugs of coffee cupped in our hands, we crept outside our cabins to greet the Baja morning. Isla San Marcos loomed to our port and with calm seas, it promised to be a spectacular day. We had traveled all night in a northwesterly direction to reach this destination. Once ashore, we discovered many wonderful sights such as the flowering “old man cactus.” The long hair-like gray spines at the top of the branches give it a whiskered look. The bright red marble-sized fruit is palatable but pales by comparison in taste to that of pitaya dulce, the “organ pipe cactus.” While snorkeling along the eroded shoreline, which produced many interesting grottos, we discovered a recessed cove filled with schools of juvenile fishes. But the real treat was protruding from the cover of a large rock on the sandy sea floor - a pair of guitarfish! They inhabit rocky reefs and gravel-strewn areas and tend to ignore snorkelers.
Soon after we left San Marcos, we noticed that the color of the sea had changed from a green pea soup to crimson in large patches. This phenomenon, known as the red tide, is caused by dinoflagellates numbering in the millions. There are important phytoplankton in all oceans, but they are more abundant in tropical and semi-tropical waters. Many dinoflagellates produce toxins during growth and when conditions are right, blooms occur. Red tides can kill fish because the cell breaks and releases a neurotoxin as they pass through the gills of the fish. Previously, we had rendezvoused with a team from National Geographic. Mark Thorpe introduced us to “Critter Cam” and its possibilities with an intriguing presentation. With this incredible device, we traveled on the backs of various animals and got to experience a portion of their world unseen before, and all without getting wet!
Later on in the afternoon, while on a cetacean watch, keen eyes picked out the squarish head of a member of the genus Kogia, a creature that is not often seen. The pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are among the smallest species to be called “whales.” Next, a group of short-finned pilot whales made an appearance to a very receptive audience. These large-toothed whales appeared to be intent on diving, possibly feeding, and after a time would appear again at the surface in a “chorus line” position. We watched until darkness descended but as we gazed around at the darkening sea and sky around us, the most amazing multicolored sunset cast a soft rosy light onto the surface of everything it touched. Recap on the Sea Voyager in the Sea of Cortez just doesn’t get any better than this.
With freshly brewed mugs of coffee cupped in our hands, we crept outside our cabins to greet the Baja morning. Isla San Marcos loomed to our port and with calm seas, it promised to be a spectacular day. We had traveled all night in a northwesterly direction to reach this destination. Once ashore, we discovered many wonderful sights such as the flowering “old man cactus.” The long hair-like gray spines at the top of the branches give it a whiskered look. The bright red marble-sized fruit is palatable but pales by comparison in taste to that of pitaya dulce, the “organ pipe cactus.” While snorkeling along the eroded shoreline, which produced many interesting grottos, we discovered a recessed cove filled with schools of juvenile fishes. But the real treat was protruding from the cover of a large rock on the sandy sea floor - a pair of guitarfish! They inhabit rocky reefs and gravel-strewn areas and tend to ignore snorkelers.
Soon after we left San Marcos, we noticed that the color of the sea had changed from a green pea soup to crimson in large patches. This phenomenon, known as the red tide, is caused by dinoflagellates numbering in the millions. There are important phytoplankton in all oceans, but they are more abundant in tropical and semi-tropical waters. Many dinoflagellates produce toxins during growth and when conditions are right, blooms occur. Red tides can kill fish because the cell breaks and releases a neurotoxin as they pass through the gills of the fish. Previously, we had rendezvoused with a team from National Geographic. Mark Thorpe introduced us to “Critter Cam” and its possibilities with an intriguing presentation. With this incredible device, we traveled on the backs of various animals and got to experience a portion of their world unseen before, and all without getting wet!
Later on in the afternoon, while on a cetacean watch, keen eyes picked out the squarish head of a member of the genus Kogia, a creature that is not often seen. The pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are among the smallest species to be called “whales.” Next, a group of short-finned pilot whales made an appearance to a very receptive audience. These large-toothed whales appeared to be intent on diving, possibly feeding, and after a time would appear again at the surface in a “chorus line” position. We watched until darkness descended but as we gazed around at the darkening sea and sky around us, the most amazing multicolored sunset cast a soft rosy light onto the surface of everything it touched. Recap on the Sea Voyager in the Sea of Cortez just doesn’t get any better than this.
