Hello whalewatchers: We had a bumpy ride last night, but we arrived at Isla Espiritu Santo for the day and had some time in a calm spot. The Sea of Cortez is a wonderful place for anchorages, and fortunately we have a great boat that we can take anywhere with confidence knowing we are safe. Everyone had a great day with a nice walk, a good snorkel session and a skiff ride. We are finishing the day with a great sunset as only Baja can produce.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: Today we were blessed with some great weather and spectacular whalewatching. There were lots of humpbacks around this morning starting at daylight after a great sunrise and some great flukes to start the day. We had a great show with a cow/calf pair with an escort for more than an hour. The calf was breaching repeatedly and the cow and escort were flipper flapping and tail lobbing. All of this within 50 yards of the boat. Everyone got some great photos and video footage. There were multiple whales in the area breaching in the distance. So much to see, it was great! We also saw some common and bottlenose dolphin. Around lunchtime the wind came up and so we went to Bahia Los Frailes. Everyone enjoyed the walk and half the group went for their first snorkel.
More tomorrow, Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: Today we had excellent conditions with light winds and calm seas, clear skies, and great visiblity for looking. We had a slow morning with just a few common dolphin and some bird life. Two masked boobies were top birds in the morning. After lunch we started to see more life. There were some groups of sea lions out feeding in deep water. We came across a fin whale cow and calf. We good looks at them. While looking at the fin whales we saw a red-billed tropicbird with great lighting and we were able to get close as well.
A little further south we saw several spouts on the horizon– there were two groups of humpbacks that we didn’t get to because of a blue whale. It was a really big whale and show its fluke regularly. We spent the late afternoon with this whale and had great looks at a blue whale. All in all we a great day with good weather and lots of wildlife. The day ended with a spectacular sunset.
Looking forward to tomorrow with humpbacks, Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: It was a picture-perfect day in Laguna San Ignacio with light winds and calm seas. There are lots of whales as well.We started our day much earlier today.We had excellent whalewatching with plenty of close encounters for everyone. We had two trips this morning and two trips this afternoon, with an optional beach walk on the last trip.Everyone that went to the beach had a great walk. The last whalewatching group claimed they needed their heads on a swivel to catch all the action. That’s what we call “San Ignacio at its finest.”
We are headed south looking for other whales tomorrow. Today’s photo is a returning panga with a gray whale fluke in the background. Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: Today we encountered some wind in Laguna San Ignacio, so we had to wait awhile to get out in the pangas. We enjoyed some great whalewatching from the Searcher with a very curious cow and calf! There are hundreds of whales in Laguna San Ignacio with the latest census being a total of 354 whales. Needless to say there were plenty of whales to look at this morning. We got the pangas out for a trip after lunch and there were some close encounters and lots of happy whalewatchers. This place is working its magic.The wind has subsided dramatically this evening and we have a great sunset developing.
More tomorrow. Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers,
We had a great day at Islas San Benito–good weather with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 60’s. Great for hiking. Plenty of elephant seals and a few Guadalupe fur seals. Osprey on the nest and plenty more to keep everyone busy. A sighting of a brown booby in the anchorage. Looking forward to tomorrow in Laguna San Ignacio. Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: Today we had a busy day starting with Isla Todos Santos. All the usual suspects0–three pinnepeds and all the oystercatchers, terns, perregrine
falcons that we usually see. At the south end of the island we saw pelagic
commorants, brown boobies and a rarity–masked booby.
There were lots of northbound gray whales, short and long beaked common dolphins and some really good looks at humpback whales. Offshore we saw several
murrelets, auklets, shearwaters and gulls. Looking forward to tomorrow at
Isla San Benitos. Photo is Lee Morgan’s masked booby.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: Today we enjoyed sunny skies and calm seas. We started at Punta Colorado on Isla San Jose at sunrise and went ashore before breakfast. This is just one of our favorite places in Baja. We left there and started south looking for whales. We came across some common dolphin and then a Bryde’s whale with the island in the background, it was a great show! Then we saw at least 8-10 dwarf sperm whales which are rare and only seen in the conditions we had. A big group of bottlenose dolphin was next. Could it get any better? It did with a good-size group of pilot whales (pictured) with a few calves included. Then the finale–sperm whales in the Cerralvo channel. We saw at least 20 individuals with multiple animals on the surface at once. A great day for toothed whales and did I mention the sunset? Another great one!
We are arriving in Cabo in the morning with a very happy group of whalewatchers.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We got some nice Sea of Cortez weather today and we took advantage of it in a big way. We saw at least 15 blue whales throughout the day, with one cow calf pair and two blue whales that fluked. A mega herd of thousands of common dolphin, humpbacks and plenty of bird life, with black and least storm petrels, were added to the list.
We had a period where the wind came up for a few hours so we ducked into one of our favorite spots on the peninsula, Puerto Gato. It is a great little cove and very picturesque.
We ended the day with a classic Baja sunset over the peninsula, The “Cloud Appreciation Society” members were pleased. We had margaritas and a buffet on the back deck to cap off a great day. Team Searcher
