After a mostly calm night at sea we awakened aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird on approach to Isla San Pedro Mártir, a 1,000-foot-high volcanic island decorated with guano and cardón cactuses. The island is home to California sea lions and many seabirds, including brown and blue-footed boobies roosting in the nooks and crannies of outcroppings and ledges, and brown pelicans roosting along the shoreline. Flying above us were yellow-footed gulls, Heermann’s gulls, pelagic cormorants, elegant terns and red-billed tropicbirds. Our morning was dedicated to exploring the perimeter and waters around the island on expedition landing craft.
I spent some quiet time on the bow, communing with the elements. As the fresh sea breeze ran its fingers through my hair, I watched the birds highlight the varying air currents in intricately choreographed patterns of chaos as they circled and soared and flapped their wings. Blue-footed boobies plunge-dived a school of fish off the port bow, while a huge mass of eared grebes floated by just starboard. Off in the distance between the islets and the main island was the sound and “pfffttt” spray of a humpback whale. I watched as the expedition landing crafts circled around the island to investigate. Some boaters got close enough downwind to discover the particular smell of whale breath. Ahhhh…
Back on board, we weighed anchor and began our long journey south. On our way, we took another look at the humpback whale from this larger platform. In the afternoon we had a few talks in the lounge, we napped and read, played games, edited photos, got massages, relaxed on deck, and kept an eye out for more wildlife as we sailed south. At one point more whales were spotted—perhaps beaked whales—but they didn’t come back up to allow us a closer look. Much later we came upon two mobula rays engaged in an intimate dance just at the water’s surface.
Today’s recap was a lively one as our naturalists requested audience participation to demonstrate the size of a humpback whale, and then re-enacted the thigmotactic behavior of California sea lions. As I was writing this the adults were in the dining room enjoying another amazing meal and I could hear the sounds of Despicable Me coming from the lounge, the winner for kid’s movie night. Another beautiful day here in Baja California Sur.
