Captain's Blog

Hello whalewatchers,
Laguna San Ignacio produced another marvelous day with great weather light winds. Oh and a gray whale or two! Everyone had a close encounter with multiple whales today. There are a lot of whales here as reported at the end of last week–over 300 whales and 81 cows with calves. Need I say more?
It is great to be here and experience the magic. We just can’t get enough of this place. Looking forward to a great sunset and lights out tonight with the whales and the stars.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art

Hello whalewatchers,
Today we started our day with no wind! We left our anchorage at daylight to go offshore and look for whales. We saw a fin whale first and kept going to get onto deep water with hopes of finding some toothed whales while the wind is down.
We came across four blue whales and there waa a cow and calf. We hung around with them for an hour or so and had some great looks at them. The cow was really large–at least 80 feet in length.
Since we were hoping for toothed whales, we headed south and came across an area of dwarf sperm whales. There were aof 8 whales in pairs and we had really good looks at them–some were within 50 yards. It is always great to see such a rare species. We are lucky to have the calm conditions to accomplish that.
We saw a few more blue whales as we traveled south to the upper end of the San Jose channel. We went into Bahia Tambobiche and put everyone ashore for a walk and everyone enjoyed that.  We did have great birding offshore today with both species of storm petrels, boobies, shearwaters, jeagers, and one south polar skua.
Headed south tonight to visit the mangroves at Isla San Jose in the morning and then off to Los Islotes to snorkel with the sea lions.
More tomororw,
Capt Art

Hello whalewatchers,
We had a great day at Isla Santa Catalina. We had a snorkel session and a Krazy Koastal Kruise with Kapt Kenny and Kapt Kameron. After lunch we headed out and the wind diminished so we could work. We saw a blue whale that was very cooperative, diving for 8 or 9 minutes. We had great looks, with the peninsula in the background and the whale stayed at the surface for a couple of minutes. We stayed with it and for a finale, it fluked right off the bow.
We continued on and found a fin whale north of Bahia Agua Verde at sunset. The sunset was fantastic.  We are going to anchor at Isla Monserrate tonight and then whalewatch with good weather tomorrow.
Capt Art

Hello all,
Today the weather wasn’t great for whalewatching so we made a stop at Isla San Francisco. Everyone went ashore and had a nice walk. Some of the group came back for a snorkel session with good visibility and lots of fish.
After lunch we ventured out to look for whales and were surprised to have good conditions in the San Jose channel. We saw one small baleen whale and a good-size group of long-beaked common dolphin. Lots of photographs were taken as dolphins are always a treat.
After a wonderful sunset over the peninsula, we continued north to Isla Santa Catalina for a calm night at anchor.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art

p.s. Peaceful photo of Searcher at anchor by Fran Carman