Baby Whales (and More)
Magdalena Bay, Baja California
February 22, 2023
We spent the morning on the ship, as we transited the Hull Canal, which needs to be done in daylight with a pilot. The Sea Bird is the only Nat Geo ship that can make the transit. Those on the larger ship (the NG Venture) have to take a bus to the northern port (Adolfo Lopez Mateos). From the bow, we saw birds, dolphins and a few moms and their calves. Before lunch, we had an interesting presentation by staff about sand dunes and the plants and animals that live on them.
Photos while cruising to the next location.
In the afternoon, we did our third whale watching excursion on a panga boat. We saw a lot of mother/calf pairs, and some breaching, which we hadn’t seen at the other location.
These are the panga boats we will use today lined up at the side of the ship.
We got a photo of a breach from afar. Another passenger got a closer photo, below.
Above you can see a mother and calf together.
And here you can see the baby’s head!
After whale watching, we took a Zodiac to the nearby beach and walked around in very soft sand (we sank a third of the way up our calves). We took photos of the sand dunes and returned to the ship to clean up. A bit later, another Zodiac took us to a nearby spot on the beach for a barbecue dinner that featured local musicians playing for the passengers.
February 23, 2023
We had our last whale watching excursion from the ship, where all of the passengers left at the same time instead of in two groups. We journeyed all the way from the ship past Adolfo Lopez Mateos to the Boca de Soledad, which is the mouth of the Magdalena Bay. The trip took about 30-40 minutes. We saw more moms and their calves, but the water was quite a bit rougher, so it was tough taking good photographs. We returned to the ship and watched wildlife while we transited back south through the canal. We saw a lot of dolphins surfing on the ship’s bow wave and quite a few birds and whales.
Last two photos of gray whales. Look at the eye on the last one.
Well, here’s one more mom and baby.
After lunch, we had a presentation about artisan chocolate and tasted some samples. Then the ship anchored near Sand Dollar Beach again, but we elected to read on the ship’s sunny top deck instead of making a “wet landing” into that soft sand!
Here are some photos taken while we cruised back to San Carlos.
After dinner, there was a photo exchange among the passengers and a presentation of a slide show compiled of passenger and staff photos of the trip. A link to the 14 minute slide show is here.
We had a really wonderful time (four days/five nights aboard the Sea Bird and met many nice fellow passengers.
Tomorrow we will bid farewell to the Sea Bird and drive east back across the peninsula.
