Sand Dollar Beach & Hull Canal
After a nice night sailing north from Cabo San Lucas, the National Geographic Sea Bird was off Santa Margarita Island when the sun rose over the peninsula. Numerous marine birds flew around us in the gentle breeze, whereas the occasional gray whale blow was seen nearby in the calm waters. Even a solitary humpback whale breached once as we approached the inlet that separates Magdalena and Santa Margarita islands, known as La Entrada. As we entered huge Magdalena Bay we observed several adult gray whales being followed by whale-watching boats from nearby San Carlos; at least one pair seemed engaged in some romantic endeavors! On our way towards our morning anchorage we saw a very large number of California sea lions floating on the surface and sticking their fins into the air to thermo-regulate their bodies. We made our first landing on Magdalena Island and headed across magnificent sand dunes towards the Santa María Bay, better know to us as Sand Dollar Beach due to the abundance of those echinoderms there.
Early in the afternoon our local pilot expertly drove us north across the Hull Canal; during the entire evening we enjoyed bird watching and observed numerous species, including tri-colored and great blue herons, white ibis, osprey, brant, red-headed duck and many more. Bottlenose dolphins joined us several times to ride the pressure wave in front of our ship and several coyotes were seen looking for food in the mud flats. One of them even sat on shore and watched us pass by! Gray whales and their playful babies also contributed their share of beauty and mystery to another beautiful day in Baja California.
After a nice night sailing north from Cabo San Lucas, the National Geographic Sea Bird was off Santa Margarita Island when the sun rose over the peninsula. Numerous marine birds flew around us in the gentle breeze, whereas the occasional gray whale blow was seen nearby in the calm waters. Even a solitary humpback whale breached once as we approached the inlet that separates Magdalena and Santa Margarita islands, known as La Entrada. As we entered huge Magdalena Bay we observed several adult gray whales being followed by whale-watching boats from nearby San Carlos; at least one pair seemed engaged in some romantic endeavors! On our way towards our morning anchorage we saw a very large number of California sea lions floating on the surface and sticking their fins into the air to thermo-regulate their bodies. We made our first landing on Magdalena Island and headed across magnificent sand dunes towards the Santa María Bay, better know to us as Sand Dollar Beach due to the abundance of those echinoderms there.
Early in the afternoon our local pilot expertly drove us north across the Hull Canal; during the entire evening we enjoyed bird watching and observed numerous species, including tri-colored and great blue herons, white ibis, osprey, brant, red-headed duck and many more. Bottlenose dolphins joined us several times to ride the pressure wave in front of our ship and several coyotes were seen looking for food in the mud flats. One of them even sat on shore and watched us pass by! Gray whales and their playful babies also contributed their share of beauty and mystery to another beautiful day in Baja California.
