Boca de Soledad & Hull Canal
On a rising tide a little before sunrise, the first Zodiacs quietly departed the stern of the National Geographic Sea Bird. Soft lights of pale pink dawn played over the waves and within minutes the blows of California gray whales were backlit by the morning sun. Still air allowed us to witness the heart shaped breaths coming from the whales that were heading in from the Pacific Ocean. The windless sky adorned with wispy ‘mares tails’ added to the beauty of the scene and here and there we watched a gray whale spy hopping or the occasional breach. Today a newborn California gray whale joined the group at Boca de Soledad, swimming alongside its protective mother and nursing in the calm water near the ship.
Cruising south through the Hull Canal to an anchorage near an area of mangroves, we rejoiced in our good fortune to have spent time with these special animals. Once hunted nearly to extinction, the whales now accept we humans as part of their winter landscape. In a few short weeks, they will begin once again their long northward journey toward the Arctic and its seasonally abundant seas.
Our afternoon was enjoyed among the tangled roots of mangrove habitat. As we were floating though shallow narrow channels in kayaks or Zodiacs, we saw how the productivity of this green strip adjoining the nearby desert was evident in the beautiful bird life, clams squirting in the mudflats and small fishes flashing beneath us. Little blue herons, snowy egrets, yellow-crowned night herons, long-billed curlews and marbled godwits were among the many interesting birds.
This week among whales and of drinking in the magic of Baja California has flown by and tomorrow we will scatter to rejoin old friends and family in our respective homes. In our pockets we’ll carry addresses of new friends and digital cards filled with photographic images, and in our hearts we’ll carry home the memories of a wild desert place near the sea.
