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Tour #3 February 23 Gray whales and pelican chicks

Hello whalewatchers,

Yesterday we started trip #3. After clearing into Mexico, we visited Islas Todos Santos. The island is still very green and there gas been a change there. There are several brown pelican chicks on nests! It was a pleasant surprise to see all those chicks.

We saw our first whale close to the island and we had great looks at it–a fin whale. A little further south we came across a large herd of long-beaked comon dolphins. It is always great to spend time with dolphins.
We had our first look a gray whales today also, with three groups of northbound whales. We followed them for awhile and we had great looks. There were 4 to 6 whales in each group.
We didnt see much this afternoon except a fin whale right at sunset.
Looking forward to tomorrow,
Capt Art

2011-02-24T19:25:24-08:00February 23rd, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #3 off and running!

And as an homage to our all-British group of whalewatchers, Chef Charles baked scones at tea time! All arrived safely and their journey has begun. We’ll report on the wildlife news starting later today.

2011-02-23T12:05:07-08:00February 23rd, 2011|News|
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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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Tour #2 Sea of Cortez at its finest! Feb 17

Hello whalewatchers,
We enjoyed the Sea of Cortez at its finest with great sunny weather, calm seas, and the best conditions for spotting you can imagine. We saw 15 blue whales, two fin whales, 6 Bryde’s whales, two dwarf sperm whales, which means we can add another new species to our trip list. There is a tremendous amount of sea life and bird life. It just doesn’t get much better.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art

p.s. As promised, a photo of Kogia (dwarf sperm whale) taken by Chef Charles Howell. These animals are hard to spot and even harder to photograph!

Dwarf sperm whale surfacing

2020-07-15T16:35:24-07:00February 17th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Fin and Blue whale morning Feb 16

Hello whalewatchers,
We began today with another spectacular sunrise with wonderful light on one of my favorite parts of the peninsula. After pulling the anchor we came across a pair of fin whales and we followed them closely for and had tremendous looks. Fin whales with the peninsula in the background was beautiful. It didn’t take long to come across a few blue whales–5 or 6 total–including one that was fluking. We also saw the example of the Vermilion Sea (another name for the Sea of Cortez) with large areas of red krill on the surface. We spent a couple of hours with the blue whales.
We left that area for a large area of pelicans, boobies and gulls diving. There were miles and miles of birds diving and surprisingly, no whales or dolphins. We did see a humpback finally and a fin whale in the distance. It was great to see all that life in just a morning.
More later,
Capt Art

2011-02-21T16:47:42-08:00February 16th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Isla Santa Catalina and whales, whales, and more whales!

Hello whalewatchers,
What a day we had today! It started out with a great sunrise again, the lighting on the peninsula was tremendous. The group went ashore early and had great hike. The crew went over on a mission to find a rattleless rattlesnake and found two. (Attached photo is taken by Hilary Thompson) They marked the spot for the rest of the group and everyone got a good look at one. Then there was a snorkel for those interested, and Kaptain Kenny’s Koastal Kruise for those who preferred that. Pretty krazy! Then there were Chuckwagon Cheeseburgers in Paradise for lunch!
We went offshore and despite a little wind and swell, we had a great show with a Bryde’s whale cow and calf, and once again we had a playful calf that breached and flopped around. We were able to keep track of them since they were right on the surface the whole time. After that we had a group of common dolphin and then a big group of bottlenose dolphin that performed for us.

We saw some whales in the distance and on our way there, we spotted some small whales that we thought might be more bottlenose dolphin but they turned out to be false killer whales. These are fairly unusual for us to find so we are thrilled! There were about 40 animals along with a fin whale too. We stayed with them for about an hour and decided to put the hydrophone in the water. We were able to pick their squeals so that was pretty cool too.

False killer whales

The whole afternoon the crew and the naturalists were seeing whales in a couple different directions and so we went over to the peninsula and found two big blue whales feeding and one was a fluker.
Holy smokes! What an afternoon! Four blues, four fins, two Bryde’s, 40 false killer whales, 100 bottlenose dolphins,  50 common dolphin, and the possibility of 1 humpback.
Incredible and all in one day in the Sea of Cortez.

We are staying around this area tomorrow, and I can’t wait for the morning,
Capt Art

2020-07-15T16:35:25-07:00February 15th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Valentine’s Day blue whale!

Hello whalewatchers,
Happy Valentines day to everyone!

We had a great day with gorgeous weather. It was calm and we had no wind. It doesn’t get much better than this here in the Sea of Cortez. We started our day with a beautiful sunrise at Punta Colorado, Isla San Jose. A Krazy Koastal Kruise for everyone was next, then a walk up the arroyo and to top it off, a snorkel. This all happened before noon. (Hilary Thompson’s photo of the ash-throated flycatcher is attached. These flycatchers are often seen on Baja’s islands and peninsula locations.)

We then travelled west towards the peninsula and were rewarded with a big blue whale that was very cooperative allowing us to get close and follow it for a while. After that we came accross a group of pilot whales and we had a good time with them. We travelled a little way north but didn’t see too much, except a family of Craveri’s murrelets with two adults and two chicks. After that we decided to stop and turn the engines off and enjoy the sunset, which was spectacular.
Looking forward to tomorow at Isla Catalina and the weather forecast looks good.
Capt Art

p.s. We’ll be enjoying some chocolate-dipped strawberries tonite and toasting our loved ones!

2011-02-19T15:21:40-08:00February 14th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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