Glassy waters greeted the guests, staff, and crew of National Geographic Sea Bird in the blue pre-dawn light of Baja California. Before the sun was up, over 20 guests, tripods in hand, had made landing on a beautiful waning-crescent-moon-shaped cobblestone beach along the east side of Isla San José. It was an ideal morning for photography as we explored the orange and yellow cliffs over the Sea of Cortez, sculpted by the wind and water and bathed in the early morning light.
Following breakfast we sailed into the Sea of Cortez looking for wildlife and were immediately rewarded with a pod of 16 sperm whales! Other than the brief view of a fluke a few weeks ago, this was the first encounter the Sea Bird has had with sperm whales the entire season! The pod languidly swam alongside the ship for over half an hour while the captain expertly maneuvered the Sea Bird to provide photographers on deck with the incredible backdrop of the mountains of Baja. Later in the morning, after an excellent lecture on the adaptations of desert plants by naturalist Linda Burback, a pod of bottlenose dolphins joined the ship for some extended bow-riding.
The afternoon was filled with snorkeling and hiking among the red rocky outcrops of Puerto Gato on the Baja peninsula. To top off a tremendous day of fun and exploration, the galley crew prepared a tasty beach barbecue that was hungrily devoured as the sunset. Expedition leader Jack Swenson treated the guests to guitar music and stories around a beach bonfire.
For the photographers in the group—the visual dessert for the day was the opportunity to photograph the Milky Way in the clear desert sky.
