Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico
We had the sweetest northbound trip along the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula last night: the gentlest rocking, half a moon, lots of stars after moonset and air warm enough to be out on deck in shirtsleeves. Just perfect after a fantastic green flash sunset at land’s end! And then this morning we watched a violet-and-green-flash sunrise over Baja with humpback whales blowing their spouts nearby. The rest of the day was spent transiting through the winter home of the California gray whale, Magdalena Bay.
We entered the Bay through La Entrada, the deepwater opening between Isla Santa Margarita and Isla Magdalena, where many gray whales were chasing about in courting groups, throwing their tail flukes in the air and disappearing into the depths to carry on their whale business. We continued northward in the Bay, passing the town of San Carlos where the waterway became much narrower, shallower and more sinuous. This passage between the main part of Magdalena Bay and the upper Magdalena Bay lagoon complex is called Hull Canal and is skirted by mangrove thickets, mud flats and many, many bird species: egrets, herons, ibis, gulls, terns, pelicans, cormorants and shorebirds along with a couple of coyotes.
Once we passed Devil’s Bend, where the tidal flow changes direction, we were back into gray whale country….big time! In the 10-mile stretch in the lagoon to our anchorage, we counted 26 single adult whales and seven cow/calf pairs, all closer than 50 meters from the ship. These whales had come all the way from a summer of feeding in the highly productive bottom sediments of the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort seas, 5000 to 7000 miles away, to court, mate or to give birth to the calf that had been conceived the previous year. It was a thrill to see them so closely from our vantage point on the bow and on the bridge of the ship.
After passing the cannery town of Puerto Lopez Mateos, we continued northward to our anchorage near the sandbar-protected lagoon entrance of Boca de Soledad; and since we still had some daylight left, jumped into the Zodiacs and landed on a stunningly beautiful beach in front of sand dunes backlit by the lowering sun. Near the landing beach were mangrove thickets that served as a roosting place for a host of double crested cormorants and magnificent frigate birds that were coming in to spend the night safe from marauding coyotes or bobcats.
Back aboard ship many of us were out on deck to watch a beautiful sun set over the mangroves which put the final touches on a perfect day here in Baja California.
We had the sweetest northbound trip along the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula last night: the gentlest rocking, half a moon, lots of stars after moonset and air warm enough to be out on deck in shirtsleeves. Just perfect after a fantastic green flash sunset at land’s end! And then this morning we watched a violet-and-green-flash sunrise over Baja with humpback whales blowing their spouts nearby. The rest of the day was spent transiting through the winter home of the California gray whale, Magdalena Bay.
We entered the Bay through La Entrada, the deepwater opening between Isla Santa Margarita and Isla Magdalena, where many gray whales were chasing about in courting groups, throwing their tail flukes in the air and disappearing into the depths to carry on their whale business. We continued northward in the Bay, passing the town of San Carlos where the waterway became much narrower, shallower and more sinuous. This passage between the main part of Magdalena Bay and the upper Magdalena Bay lagoon complex is called Hull Canal and is skirted by mangrove thickets, mud flats and many, many bird species: egrets, herons, ibis, gulls, terns, pelicans, cormorants and shorebirds along with a couple of coyotes.
Once we passed Devil’s Bend, where the tidal flow changes direction, we were back into gray whale country….big time! In the 10-mile stretch in the lagoon to our anchorage, we counted 26 single adult whales and seven cow/calf pairs, all closer than 50 meters from the ship. These whales had come all the way from a summer of feeding in the highly productive bottom sediments of the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort seas, 5000 to 7000 miles away, to court, mate or to give birth to the calf that had been conceived the previous year. It was a thrill to see them so closely from our vantage point on the bow and on the bridge of the ship.
After passing the cannery town of Puerto Lopez Mateos, we continued northward to our anchorage near the sandbar-protected lagoon entrance of Boca de Soledad; and since we still had some daylight left, jumped into the Zodiacs and landed on a stunningly beautiful beach in front of sand dunes backlit by the lowering sun. Near the landing beach were mangrove thickets that served as a roosting place for a host of double crested cormorants and magnificent frigate birds that were coming in to spend the night safe from marauding coyotes or bobcats.
Back aboard ship many of us were out on deck to watch a beautiful sun set over the mangroves which put the final touches on a perfect day here in Baja California.
