Hello whalewatchers: We woke up to great conditions this morning! Calm seas are always welcome here. We have had lots to look at thus far today–humpback whales, common dolphins and lots of sea bird life, inlcuding black-vented shearwaters, Bonapartes and California gulls. One of the special things to see when it is this calm is sea turtles. We have seen at least 100 so far.
Today’s picture is of a humpback whale dorsal hump up-close next to the Searcher.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We have had a wonderful visit in Laguna San Ignacio with great weather, lots and lots of whales, and plenty of close encounters. There are certainly a lot of mothers and calves here, and the census shows more than year’s past. Today’s picture is of a single whale close to Searcher.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: Our weather is great with calm conditions as we enter Laguna San Ignacio. There are plenty of whales in the entrance and even more as we travel to our anchorage in the observation zone. The latest census is 85 cows with calves and 120 single adults–lots of whales and quite a few more calves than usual.
The first panga went out and only had to travel 100 feet and they had a close encounter with a cow and calf. Wow!
The same for the next two pangas. I’m seeing lots of smiles as the pangas returned from the first trip.
Today’s photo of a tail fluke next to Searcher.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We enjoyed a great day at Islas San Benito. There are plenty of northern elephant seals, with all the behaviors you would expect at this time of year–mating, males fighting over their harems, and females nursing pups. Guadalupe fur seals were in their usual spot this trip, and ospreys as well. To go along with all the wildlife, the island is in bloom with lots of island mallow, ice plant, Agave, Encelia and the Mammilaria cactus too. We are headed south to Laguna San Ignacio, arriving after breakfast.
Today’s photo is San Benito village from Searcher.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We had a very productive morning with good sightings of gray whales both north- and south-bound. We also found multiple humpbacks and some were breaching close to the boat. Then we found some common dolphin and a few Pacific white sided dolphin as we exited Ensenada harbor.
Islas Todos Santos is very green and there are still some northern elephant seals on the beach. The pups are bigger and the count was 14 animals. There were also a few harbor seals and sea lions. The brown pelican colony is thriving with hundreds of birds on the nest and in breeding plumage.
Team Searcher
Ready or not, sea lions, here come the Searcher snorkelers!
Hello whalewatchers: We started our day at beautiful Isla Santa Catalina. There was a nice walk and a Crazy Coastal Cruise and a snorkel session. The island has benefited from some tropical rain — all the plants are leafing out and the cardons look great. The wate is clear but a little cooler here. I think everyone enjoyed their time on the island.
We left at lunchtime and went offshore for whales. We had a great, though brief, look at a Bryde’s whale. A little later we came across a mega-herd of common dolphin. There had to be 3000-4000 animals!! We had a lull until we arrived back in the same zone as yesterday where the orcas were and they found us again! It was the same group of 8 and exhibited the same behaviors, like tail lobbing and even a single breach. Very cool!
The orcas started to move and someone pointed behind us and there was a group of about 30 pilot whales close to the stern. We finished the day of wildlife watching there. The day didn’t completley end since it is “margarita night” and back deck buffet. Looking forward to it, Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We have had some different weather this trip, with tropical rain on multiple days and some real downpours. We even had some lightning and thunder last night. We made it to Isla San Jose and Punta Colorada for sunrise and everyone enjoyed seeing that. Then we had a walk ashore and a snorkel. There was even another rain squall as we left the island. Amazing to have this moisture come up from the south…
Later in the afternoon, we saw a pair of spouts in the distant and there were two humpbacks. One was breaching and breaching and breaching, in fact we counted 87 breaches. We have never seen anything like it! 
We had some great opportunities for photos of breaching. The humpback finally stopped and we decided to to look for something else. Capt Aaron found some orcas again. Wow!. There were eight indivduals in two groups, milling around the same zone. No prominant male with a big dorsal ,but there is was a calf. We saw some tail lobbing which is also something we haven’t seen before. What a show! Orcas under the boat and very close at times.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We’ve had poor reception with the sat phone for 24 hours for some reason. Sorry for the lag time on the report.
Yesterday was a good day with plenty of humpbacks and good weather. We saw around 30 whales and some of them up close. A group of 5 in particular gave us a good show, and we had a cow with a small calf and two escorts that hung out with us for a while. All in all a successful day around the Gorda Banks area.
Los Frailes was good for a quick walk and our first snorkel. The water was 74 degrees and clear. The snow birds are there for the winter and so the hummingbird feeders were up and producing good looks at Xantus’ hummers, a Baja endemic.
We went ashore again this morning for a walk and then we left there midmorning with windy conditions. The wind died as we went north but we had rain (very unusual!) for most of the afternoon. We then found a large pod of pilot whales to watch. Hoping for a big day tomorrow at Isla San Jose.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We woke up with nice conditions and it didn’t take too long for us to come across some common dolphin and a pair of humpback whales. We saw a total of 16 humpbacks today with a couple of breaches. We saw a few green sea turtles, a red-billed tropic bird, a large group of sea lions. So we stayed busy until lunch and then we had a slow period.
We ended the day with a very large group of common dolphin, at least 1000 dolphin in the group. Everyone had a great time viewing the dolphins and the photographers filled their cards with images. Looking forward to more humpback whale activity tomorrow.
Team Searcher
