MS National Geographic Sea Bird
Isla Santa Catalina, Baja, Mexico
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

    Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the sunny Gulf of California. The gulf continued to provide a somewhat wild ride throughout the night. I found the gentle pitching of the ship to be rather relaxing and I just let it rock me to sleep last night. This morning, some of us awoke early as the ship glided quietly into a sheltered cove at Isla Santa Catalina. The sun hadn’t yet arisen, but it looked to be a spectacular day in the early pre-dawn light.

    Those of us early risers boarded a Zodiac to transfer to shore in order to catch that beautiful early light from sunrise. We weren’t going to photograph the sunrise, but rather to capture the features of the island in the warm morning light.

    I spend all morning hiking around the island viewing the cactus, birds, and lizards. The island also has an endemic species of venomous snake that has evolved to lose the tail rattles that it once had. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see an example this trip.

    Following lunch aboard the ship, we retrieved our anchor once again and headed out into the now much calmer gulf. It is a splendid day and we were on the lookout for ocean wildlife. We encountered several pods of pilot whales. Several times we saw pods off each side of the bow, and occasionally the pods would change direction to meet for a short visit and then go their separate ways. The pilot whales are small, more closely sized with dolphins and usually do not display the antics of humpbacks, such as breaching and fluke-slapping. However, occasionally a juvenile will show off.

    Compared to the small-finned pilot whales, they’re big. Compared to anything they are big. In fact, they are the most massive animals ever to live on Earth. They are the blue whales. We were fortunate late this afternoon to come upon two blue whales feeding in the Sea of Cortez. It is hard to judge the size of a creature swimming in open water, but when it surfaces, the blow is tremendous and seems to hang in the air forever. Then you start to see the body arching gently out of the water a little at a time like an ancient mythical sea serpent; and it goes on and on and then you finally see the little dorsal fin slide by; and then more of the body. It is a magnificent sight, but makes for boring photographs without a size reference.

    We were also treated to a most spectacular orange sunset today. In the photos, it almost looks like it was doctored or created in Photoshop, but this was Mother Nature at her finest. It has been another wonderful day discovering Baja. We are cruising north tonight and with luck, tomorrow we will be among the gray whales.