Cabo San Lucas & Gorda Banks
A beautiful moon, surrounded by a colorful halo, shone over the rock formations at Land’s End before sunrise. Just off the boundary between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, the National Geographic Sea Lion waited her turn to enter the marina at Cabo San Lucas, as numerous sport-fishing boats sped past her on their way out to look for billfish and tuna. We admired the world-famous granite arch before docking at the marina to pick-up supplies and fresh water; immediately, we divided into two groups to go snorkeling and bird-watching. The snorkeling at Pelican Rock proved to be a great experience, as the abundant schools of fish gave us an idea of the abundance of marine life here. Huge numbers of yellow snapper, Moorish idol, graybar grunt, yellow-tail surgeon fish and many more totally surrounded the reef. Even rare sightings were made, like those of Clarion angel fish, spotted boxfish and glass-eye snapper!
We departed from Cabo during lunch time and it wasn’t long before the first of numerous whale sightings was made: a couple of humpback whales. Soon, two more whales were discovered swimming close to shore, members of a species already familiar to all of us, the gray whale! Throughout the whole afternoon we sailed northeast towards the sea-mounts at Gorda Banks and beyond; jumping Mobula rays, breaching whales, including a baby humpback whale that breached repeatedly very close to shore, and marine birds delighted us as we sailed deep into the realms of the Sea of Cortez.
A beautiful moon, surrounded by a colorful halo, shone over the rock formations at Land’s End before sunrise. Just off the boundary between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, the National Geographic Sea Lion waited her turn to enter the marina at Cabo San Lucas, as numerous sport-fishing boats sped past her on their way out to look for billfish and tuna. We admired the world-famous granite arch before docking at the marina to pick-up supplies and fresh water; immediately, we divided into two groups to go snorkeling and bird-watching. The snorkeling at Pelican Rock proved to be a great experience, as the abundant schools of fish gave us an idea of the abundance of marine life here. Huge numbers of yellow snapper, Moorish idol, graybar grunt, yellow-tail surgeon fish and many more totally surrounded the reef. Even rare sightings were made, like those of Clarion angel fish, spotted boxfish and glass-eye snapper!
We departed from Cabo during lunch time and it wasn’t long before the first of numerous whale sightings was made: a couple of humpback whales. Soon, two more whales were discovered swimming close to shore, members of a species already familiar to all of us, the gray whale! Throughout the whole afternoon we sailed northeast towards the sea-mounts at Gorda Banks and beyond; jumping Mobula rays, breaching whales, including a baby humpback whale that breached repeatedly very close to shore, and marine birds delighted us as we sailed deep into the realms of the Sea of Cortez.
