Trip Reports

Hello all,

A great day today! Started with a walk and snorkel at Isla Santa Catalina, and a Krazy Koastal Krruise with Kapt Kenny. The island is in good shape with some growth happening since last year. The cactus are budding and should be blooming in the coming weeks.

Next, we’re headed to the coast to drop the anchor for dinner. Back deck buffet tonight with “margaritas”.

Team Searcher

Hello all,

A wonderful sunrise at Punta Colorado this morning. One of our favorite places to visit in the Sea of Cortez. The weather couldn’t be better, looking forward to the day ahead.

Afternoon update:
We started our day at Punta Colorado on Isla San Jose, one of our favorite spots in Baja, for a sunrise and reflection of the red cliffs, a walk on the island and a snorkel session–all before lunch!

We traveled north into the San Jose channel in search of wildlife. We came across a widespread area of seabirds feeding on bait fish. The area covered at least 3-4 miles of birds feeding in various spots. It was very encouraging to see all the life. It didn’t take long before we saw a whale! It was a big blue whale heading south in the channel. We followed it for over an hour with great looks.

Yes, there’s a blue whale in this photo! Showing how “blue” they really are. We’re sure our on-board nature photographers got some great shots!

We headed north to anchor at Isla Santa Catalina for the night so we are poised to go ashore and snorkel early tomorrow morning and enjoy another magical place in Baja!

We had a great day, topped off by a delicious dinner of fresh yellowfin tuna with a salsa verde, and a vegetable quinoa side. Thank you chefs Charley and Dan!
Team Searcher

 

Happy Valentines Day!

We started the day with an excursion in pangas (small boats) from La Paz to view whale sharks. We had 16 snorkelers and four photographers make the trip. It was a big success with good views of multiple whale sharks. Everyone was extremely happy with the excursion this morning! Researchers at Whale Shark Mexico are actively studying this group of sharks through photo-identifying individuals and protecting the sharks from boat traffic.

While passengers were snorkeling with the sharks,  the crew and I decorated the galley for Valentines Day and provided a place for people to make a Valentine for their special person. There was lots of candy too!

We departed La Paz and headed north towards Isla Espiritu Santo. We found a single humpback whale and spent a little time watching as it fluked before diving. This whale also breached right off the bow!

We ended the day at Los Islotes this afternoon. Everyone went for a skiff ride to view the blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds and sea lions.

After the skiff ride there was a snorkel option. Los Islotes is the spot to swim with sea lions and it is one of the premier places in Baja for reef fish. Everyone enjoyed the snorkel and the whole day!
More tomorrow from the Isla San Jose area.

Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We arrived at Gorda Banks this morning and saw several humpback whales. We followed a group of five whales for an hour and had great views of flukes and blowholes as the whales surfaced frequently. We saw a few breaches in the distance from more whales in the area. We stopped and tried the hydrophone but didn’t hear a whale vocalizing this time.

Whalewatching at Gorda Banks (humpback whale blow)

We also had a great sighting of a red-billed tropicbird on the water. They are crowd-pleasers!

After a great morning watching humpbacks we traveled northeast along the tip of the Baja peninsula to Bahia Los Frailes. Everyone went ashore for a nice walk for some bird watching and a walk on a beautiful sandy beach. Afterwards those who wanted to snorkel went into 72-degree water. This was a good preparation for a possible encounter with whale sharks (Click the link for the full story) tomorrow!

The beach at Los Frailes

While we were having dinner at anchor at Los Frailes, we turned on our new LED lights from the top of the wheelhouse. We attracted some krill and then a school of smooth-tailed mobula rays came by to feed! It was a nice bonus to end the day.

Mobulas came to the boat to feed under the lights.

Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers:

The map shows Searcher‘s position (circled in red) on this day, as recorded by satellite by a friend in San Diego.

We’ve had a productive morning offshore Bahia Magdalena! For the birders, we’ve been sighting brown boobies, Craveri’s murrelets, and pink-footed shearwaters. A few humpback whales have been breaching in the distance, then there’s an occasional sea turtle and then we were served a gourmet lunch by Charley and Dan. On the menu was stuffed eggplant with mozzarella cheese and spinach on a bed of lentils with a bolognese sauce and fresh bread.

Lunch is served!

Well done, chefs!

But the highlight was a blue whale for dessert! The boys on the roof saw the blows far in the distance. It was down for 20 minutes before it surfaced again., but we were able to follow it closely because of the clear blue water. We could keep track of the whale visually underwater and follow it for several minutes until it surfaced again. Some fine photography took place by our guests.

Blue whale off the bow!

Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers:

Everything is going well for us this morning–we have great weather again! Passengers took a panga ride to the mangroves early this morning to start the day with some birding and photography. While we were having a break before going out to visit the whales, we had a curious whale visit the boat. We assume by its size, it is a single female. She hung out with us for awhile and everyone got a great looks at her. Naturalist Lee Morgan and Capt Ryan got in the skiff next to the Searcher and were able to scrub the whale with one of the deck brushes.

Curious gray whale in Laguna San Ignacio!

Afternoon update:

We finished the day today with a either a beach walk or a whalewatch. Everyone had a great experience here in Laguna San Ignacio with close encounters with gray whales, bird watching in the mangroves and a beach walk on Punta Brounough.

 

Happy whalewatchers return to Searcher. New pangas are roomy!

We are headed south for a day at sea to look for whales, dolphins, birds and sea turtles.

More tomorrow,
Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers: We arrived at one of my favorite places on earth today: Laguna San Ignacio. The weather is great and its all about the gray whales! The census completed on February 9 found a total of 184 whales here: 48 mother/calf pairs and 46 single whales.

David Phelps, Searcher passenger. and Steven Swartz, gray whale expert (right) pose on Searcher in the sunshine.

Every year we provide support to Steven Swartz and his research group here in the lagoon. Steven published a book called “Lagoon Time“ and this year we are gifting our passengers with a signed copy. One of the guests on this trip, David Phelps of England, received a copy from his family in the USA.  As a result of reading the book from cover-to-cover multiple times David decided to make the trip abroad and visit Laguna San Ignacio.

Steven and his team came by the boat today to pick up a few things, and David and a other guests got to meet Steven. This year is his 40th anniversary of working in the lagoon! He has new information about the photo ID program and has discovered are several matches from 1977 of the same whales in this lagoon today. Pretty incredible to know that whales we have been seeing and interacting with for the last 40 years still return every year to this wonderful place. We assume they are in their 50’s, like us.

Here is a link to Steven’s article about the age of living gray whales which isn’t even in press yet: https://www.sanignaciograywhales.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Age-of-GW-FINAL-for-AMJ.pdf

A brand new motor gives the biologists a dependable panga for their work!

One item that we were able to help finance for Steven and his group was a new motor for the research panga! May it live long and assist these biologists who study and protect the gray whales.

 

Afternoon update:

Our activities are finished for today. Everyone enjoyed themselves with good whalewatching and plenty of whales to view. We had some fog midday that made viewing harder for awhile. But since, the weather has been great with light winds.
Check out our new shade awning for the back deck.

It’s a little larger this year and much sturdier.

 

 

 

We are planning to have “lights out” tonight so we can view the lunar eclipse, the “snow” full moon, and maybe the comet. The silence will be nice with the generator off and maybe hear the whales breathing.
Our plan is to go to the mangroves early in the morning to start the day.

Team Searcher

Dear whalewatchers:
We had an interesting day of weather at Islas San Benito with foggy conditions all day.

Everyone enjoyed the island and saw lots of activity with elephant seals: mating, fighting, nursing and everything that takes place in an active harem on the beach.  A few Guadalupe fur seal were sighted as well,  and osprey on the nest. This all makes for great photography!

Skiff picks up passengers after their day on the island.

 

 

 

Free time for painting the scenery around you!

Team Searcher

Hello whalewatchers:

We officially entered  Mexico this morning at dawn. Everything went well. We traveled  to Islas Todos Santos and saw northern elephant seals. I counted 12 pups, most of them still with their mothers, and one single male. There were about 20 harbor seals , peregrine falcons, oystercatchers, pelagic and double crested comorants, and one brown booby.
We continued south in search of wildlife. We saw a few single gray whales and one humpback whale. We also enjoyed watching large herds of common dolphin both long- and short-beaked. There was also an occasional mola mola, sunfish, to see.
For the birders, there were loads of black-vented shearwaters, Cassin’s auklets and a few pairs of Scripps murrelets. A black-footed albatross came by the boat as I was writing this report. Our weather has been breezy with sunny skies. The group has been relaxing and catching up on rest.
More tomorrow,

Team Searcher