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| Working, April in Baja |
Wow. The 7 weeks since my last post certainly flew by in a hurry. Mark went back to work on March 1, and I followed a week later. We wrapped up another Baja season on the Sea Lion, running for 6 weeks straight, and now taking a few minutes to reflect.
The wildlife was amazing, as it nearly always is down here, and we traveled with some really wonderful people. Between the morning laugh-a-thons at the staff breakfast “meeting” and some great conversations with guests that have been sailing with us for years, the good parts far outweighed the frustrations. I’m really not sure how to collapse six amazing weeks into a single blog entry, but I’ll try to give the highlights. The photos say a lot.
My first three weeks of work were the last three gray whale trips of the season. It’s such an amazing time to be in Magdalena Bay, with the calves getting bigger and more playful and the moms giving them a little more freedom. I was fortunate to have a couple of incredible friendly whale encounters. To watch a wild animal that was hunted to near extinction voluntarily approach my boat, roll underneath and look up at me, is nothing short of miraculous.
The last two trips were Photo Expeditions – without doubt my favorite trips of the year. On these trips, we go north in the Gulf of California, to islands we visit only a few times per year. We saw every species of marine mammal I could have hoped to see, and good sea conditions for watching almost all of them. My absolute favorite though, was a glorious flat calm morning, when Mark was getting tired and a little crabby about being directed by me and the photographers, on how to drive around some dolphins. As we pulled away from the dolphins, I asked if I could drive the ship, so he could listen to the weather forecast. We spotted a large pod of pilot whales out to the east, and I turned the ship toward them. It’s funny, because I’ve never really driven the ship before, but I’ve watched Mark do it for years, and it came pretty naturally. My heart was racing as I tried to get as close as possible for the photographers, without causing the animals to change their behavior. For nearly an hour, I was able to keep the ship right beside this pod of about 50 short-finned pilot whales, while the photographers fired away. Unfortunately, I have no photos of my own, but I couldn’t stop smiling for the entire day.
I’m still learning how to photograph whales, and need to buy a longer lens, so the diversity of our whale sightings isn’t well depicted in my photos. However, we had it all... fin whales surfacing through glassy water in early morning light, humpbacks breaching right next to the ship, my fourth killer whale sighting in 10 years, blue whales, sperm whales and so many dolphins that even I could take a few decent pictures.
We also stopped at Isla Rasa, a tiny island where 95% of the world’s population of Heermann’s gulls and elegant terns nest. The sight and sound of this island is incredible, with half a million seabirds courting, defending territories, mating and, fortunately, still finding enough food to raise their young. They’re both such beautiful birds, and their courting displays are fantastic to watch.
We leave Saturday, for a few days in Seattle, then Mark flies to Lisbon for a week with Dwayne on the Endeavour. Although they’ll be working on an audit, I imagine they’ll be able to do a little sightseeing and catch up with each other. Once Mark gets home, we have a week to take Cheers out, for a little diving and island exploring.
More later, Michelle
