Home Again

La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

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

San Diego to La Paz, February 2008

Click this picture to see all of the photos from our most recent trip.

San Diego to La Paz Feb '08

Catalina Island, October 2007

Click this photo to see an album from our trip last October.

Catalina Island Oct '07

San Francisco to Southern California, May 2007

Click this photo to see an album of photos from our trip last May.

San Francisco to SoCal May '07

In La Paz

It’s been over a week since our last post, and I apologize. By now, many of you know that we arrived in La Paz, and are finally settled into our new slip. We had a rough transition from islands to town, but everything seems to be working out now.

Our first challenge was that our permanent slip wasn’t vacant, so we had to move around a bit. Then we discovered some holes in the holding tank hose. Not pretty. Next, we learned that the wi-fi here in the marina is spotty at best, and doesn’t like my Apple. Finally, after multiple frustrating attempts to send email, we learned that either AT & T, or Telmex have blocked our outgoing mail. So, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. I learned how to say “sanitary hose” in Spanish, and we purchased 5 meters of the stuff at the (amazing) local hardware store. We then spent an entire day removing the old hose and snaking the new one into place. I don’t think either of us had ever been in more twisted, uncomfortable positions in a single day, and we both felt pretty old and creaky the next day. The good news though, is that we fixed the problem, and figure that this new hose will last longer than we’ll own the boat. As for the wi-fi and email issues... once we moved into our permanent slip, Mark managed to get his computer to connect easily, and I did some online sleuthing to figure out how to “work around” the block on our outgoing email. I still can’t connect to the marina wi-fi on my Mac, but I can walk across the street to a café, where they have a great connection. After a week, most of our issues seem to be solved (knock on wood).

Mark went back to work last Saturday, and I’ll return this coming Saturday. We’ll both be on the Sea Lion, Mark until April 12th and me until the end of the Baja season, on April 19th. We probably won’t post much here until late April, when we take Cheers back out to the islands, but you can click the “Where’s the Sea Lion?” link to the right, and read the Daily Expedition Reports to know what we’re up to. I’m also working on posting a few photo albums from our trips on Cheers, so check back soon. I hope you enjoy them.
~ Michelle

Haven't Budged

We arrived into Ensenada Grande, what was it, two days ago? Since then we haven't moved the boat more than 60'. It's been pretty calm, sunny and warm since we arrived. Yesterday we were working up some energy to hit the long hike until we saw the Sea Lion pull around the corner and head in for the anchorage. We contemplated "bugging out" for another bay to the south but decided it was as good a day as any to be social. Michelle started baking cookies and I got the dinghy ready. Throughout the morning we had many friends come by to catch up and see our home. Bud Lehnhausen (longtime friend and expedition leader) and Tom Niessen (friend and one of Michelle's professors) got to stop by just before the ship left. It was great to see both of them due to the fact that Tom was about to head home and Bud would not see Michelle before he got off the ship. We made a quick delivery of some of the leftover cookies to Ryan Foley and Singyn Hunter (see Mag Bay stores delivery) before the Sea Lion headed out for Los Islotes.

For the rest of the day and through the evening last night we had the entire bay to ourselves. After dinner last we stayed on deck until the stars came out. It was glassy calm so the stars reflected off the surface of the water and there was enough bioluminescence in order to see schools of fish being chased across the bay. We found it hard to go below until it got too chilly to stay on deck. This morning Michelle got us moving early to get up the arroyo before it got too hot. We spotted many lizards along the way as well as a black jackrabbit at close range. The trail took us to the far side of Isla Partida and the cliffs on the East side. From our high vantage point we were able to look down on a peregrine falcon flying by as well as a pair of red tailed hawks flying up above. The seas were calm enough for a distant view of some dolphins swimming north. On the hike back to the beach I contemplated whether to head out for another spot or stay put. We got back to the dinghy took one look at our ideal anchorage, great conditions and no other boats in the bay and decided that we weren't budging, at least not today. Two other boats have joined us in the anchorage but they're keeping a very 'polite' distance so life is good. So, besides moving our anchor 60' closer into our little cove to secure our 'spot' we haven't budged. Mark

In the Gulf

Last night's run north from Cabo was phenomenal! We pulled out of the slip around midday, and set a northeasterly course. Seas were calm, and we even had enough wind to sail for a little while. We saw several humpbacks and gray whales, a sea turtle swimming and had a masked booby give us a close fly by. We also had a large group of bottlenose dolphins play "Sea World" with us. Although they're much larger than the other dolphin species we've seen so far, several came in to ride the bow and started leaping out of the water right next to us! The perspective is so different from this low to the water. I'm seeing things I've seen dozens of times before with fresh eyes because it's all so much closer.

Then things got even better... A cloud layer had moved in, and created the conditions for a mind-blowing sunset with the peaks of the Sierra de la Laguna in the foreground. The sky, sea, clouds and mountains turned every shade of orange and red that you can possibly imagine, and it lasted for nearly 45 minutes. At the same time, a gorgeous full moon rose out of the ocean to the east. I was disappointed for awhile, because the clouds obscured the beginning of the lunar eclipse, then the most amazing thing happened -- about ten minutes before the total eclipse began, the clouds cleared. Seriously. They were gone for just over an hour, exactly spanning the time of the total eclipse. During this hour of darkened moon, we were able to see some stunning bioluminescence. At one point, we had an entire sky full of stars, a burnt orange orb of moon halfway up the sky and the glimmering fairy dust of millions of bioluminescing plankters all around us. Like I said, the perspective is so much different from a dark boat, low on the water.

I was just coming into Cerralvo Channel at sunrise this morning, and watched the full moon set behind the ridge above La Ventana. Gorgeous. We'd hoped to stop at Isla Cerralvo on our way north, but local weather sources say the northerly winds are supposed to pick up today and blow through the weekend. So, we scouted the shoreline, and plan to come back in late April when there's less chance of getting blown out of the anchorage. Right now, we're on home turf -- sailing up the west side of Espiritu Santo Island to anchor in Ensenada Grande for tonight. It may seem crazy to stay in a place we know so well, but tomorrow, I FINALLY get to do the long hike.
~ Michelle