Isla San Pedro Martir and Cruising Southbound, Sea of Cortez, Mexico
At 6:17 this morning two things came out of the sea at the same time: a green flash sunrise and a Bryde’s whale blow and body. Wow—what a way to start the day and how portentous of the day to come! And the early morning light on the guano-dusted and cardon-cactus-carpeted island of San Pedro Martir was simply stunning.
After breakfast we donned our little orange lifejackets, jumped into our Zodiacs and took a tour around the island. Because of the local cold-water upwelling, the seas here are full of oxygen and nutrients—two essentials for an extremely rich food chain and tens of thousands of seabirds come here to roost, feed, breed and take advantage of the abundance. Brown and blue-footed boobies, red-billed tropic birds, Brandt’s cormorants and brown pelicans all gather here and we were able to watch them on land, in the water and soaring by the hundreds above our heads and above the island (it was good advice to keep one’s mouth closed while looking skyward!). Also along the shore we found hundreds of California sea lions resting, barking, playing and fighting—a constant source of entertainment.
The National Geographic Sea Bird weighed anchor before lunch and we began our southward journey toward La Paz, where we will have to end this exceptional journey of two wonderful weeks. However, we were not through with this day or this trip by any means. There is a place south of San Pedro Martir where we often find sperm whales and we headed directly for it. About 6 miles south of the island, the call came over the ship’s speakers that sperm whales had been spotted. Although the seas were a bit choppy, our Officers brought us right up to groups of female sperm whales, some with small calves. What a thrill to see these strange creatures that were the subject of wonderful sea shanties, scrimshaw, art and literature. At first we could only see the spout that went forward at a 45 degree angle and came out of the left side of the head, but soon we saw bodies like logs on the surface breathing in and out many times before throwing their shapely flukes into the air and sinking down into the azure sea. Throughout the afternoon we spotted scattered groups of these magnificent creatures and watched them blowing their feathery spouts at odd angles until just before sunset when we came across a very large male who lay on the surface for a half hour and then, just when the Captain had placed us in the very best possible position, threw his huge flukes into the air in farewell before descending into the depths.
The bounty of this day was foretold in the magic of sunrise and did not disappoint us one bit. Every day here in the Sea of Cortez has been magic and left us so grateful for the opportunity to be in such a wild and spectacular place.
