Tour 4 Isla San Jose

Hello whalewatchers: A wonderful sunrise at Punta Colorado this morning! Passengers enjoyed great hike and a snorkel session in 74- degree water. Beautiful conditions with light winds and calm seas again. It is remarkable the luck we are having with the weather and the forecast looks good for the rest of the trip. We travelled up the San Jose channel and located two bull sperm whales. We had great lighting and they are staying on the surface long enough to get some photos. Today’s photo is a sperm whale on the surface.tour 4 sperm
Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:55-07:00March 17th, 2015|Trip Reports|

Tour #1: Islas San Jose and Los Islotes

Hello whalewatchers,
We enjoyed another beautiful day in sunny Baja. We started our day with a pre-breakfast skiff ride in the mangroves at Isla San Jose. Everyone enjoyed this trip and the bird list was outstanding. We left there and headed for Los Islotes to snorkel with sea lions. We came across a large herd of long-beaked common dolphin and there were at least 100 dolphins.
We arrived at Los Islotes and several people went snorkelling and loved it, along with a skiff ride along the shore.
We headed south with hopes of seeing some toothed whales to round out the species list and surprisingly enough, we found some.
At first it was a group of about 15 pilot whales and just as the sun set, we came across a group of about 30 sperm whales. The lighting wasn’t that great, but we sure had some great looks. What way to end a trip!
We are arriving in Cabo San Lucas in the morning and heading north to San Diego to prepare and pick up our next group of whalewatchers.
More next trip,
Capt Art

2012-02-17T21:26:30-08:00February 17th, 2012|Uncategorized|

Tour #3 Isla Santa Catalina and blue whales

(Many thanks to Hilary Thompson for her beautiful photo of Isla Santa Catalina landscape!)

Hello whalewatchers,
This morning we were at Isla Santa Catalina for a hike and a snorkel. The wind was back blowing strong, but fortunately we were anchored behind this wonderful island. We stayed here until after lunch and then headed out and see if we can locate a whale.
We went towards the peninsula and we saw two blue whales right away. The wind  diminished and we were able to work and follow the whales. We spent a little time with these blue whales and continued south looking for something else. We found more blue whales and had great looks with good lighting.

With an hour left of daylight a male sperm whale breached in the distance so we went over that direction and were able to get a look at the whale through binoculars. It surfaced three times, 20 minutes apart, and on the last surfacing we were able to get close enough to see the whale without binoculars. Oddly enough the whale didn’t fluke, it just dissappeared. Most of the time sperm whales fluke to dive deep, so maybe it didn’t have to dive very deep. Everyone was happy to see a sperm whale.
We’re having margaritas and BBQ buffet on the back deck and are hoping for a chance to see bioluminesence tonight.
Capt Art

2011-03-04T11:58:53-08:00March 4th, 2011|Trip Reports|

Tour #2 Last day has a surprise Feb 17

Hello whalewatchers,

We had a great day with excellent weather again–nice, flat calm seas. Definitely one of the highlights this trip has been the beautiful weather. We started today with a morning walk at Nopolo Village on the peninsula. We were able to see our friends from Nopolo  on this trip and fill up their fresh-water containers and offer them some fresh fruits and veggies. We travelled south towards Islas Los Islotes and we saw a few Risso’s dolphins, a large raft of storm petrels (both least and black), a few bottlenose dolphin and a blue whale in the distance.
Right before we arrived at Los Islotes, we saw a group of large manta rays and we had great looks at them as they were on the surface. At Los Isolotes, the sea lions performed for the snorkellers and after that we headed south again with hopes for one last whale to end the trip. One species missing from our trip list was the highly anticipated (by some passengers) SPERM whale! As if on cue, a large male sperm whale surfaced close to the boat with only about 40 minutes of daylight left. Watching sperm whales can take a lot of patience since they are very long and deep divers, but this one surfaced very near us. Here’s a shot by Val Shore:

Sperm whale blows at sunset

It was a great way to end the trip. There was yet another great sunset and a spectacular moon rise, all within a hour of the close sperm whale.
Looking forward to next trip.
Capt Art

p.s. Just added Hilary Thompson’s photo of the sperm whale here!

2020-07-15T16:35:24-07:00February 18th, 2011|Trip Reports|

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