April 15: Isla San Jose

posted 4/15/2009

Hello whalewatchers:

We started our day with a nice sunrise on the reddish sandstone cliffs of Punta Colorada, Isla San Jose. We shortly got into the skiffs for a shoreline cruise to see brown pelicans, brown boobies, Sally Lightfoot crabs, swifts in the cave, and even some reef fishes since the water was so clear.

We then went ashore for a walk through the arroyo, or canyon bottom, to see many species of lizards, a few desert birds, and some Baja plants and trees.

Then it was snorkeling time in a nice cove on Isla San Jose. The clear 70-degree water was perfect for viewing reef fishes, sea fans, some sea stars and some pretty large parrotfishes, grouper, and snapper.

After a chicken curry lunch, we started off for an afternoon of whalewatching. Probably the highlight was a large area (2-3 miles long) of common dolphin. They came to bow ride the boat and everyone got great looks at the dolphins, including many moms and calves. Also this afternoon we found an unidentified large baleen whale (maybe a blue) and a sperm whale, but neither stayed visible for very long. At the end of the day, we had good looks at a Bryde's whale, so we added another cetacean to the trip list.

We went through many areas of sea birds today--elegant terns, blue-footed boobies, Hermann's gulls, pelicans, shearwaters and more.

We are headed to Isla Santa Catalina to anchor tonight.

More tomorrow,
Capt Art