Bahia Magdalena
Beautifully patterned common dolphins fell in alongside and before our ship as we steamed out into the Pacific after three amazing days in gray whale breeding waters. These unassumingly named ‘lads before the wind’ as Melville called them emerged out of the setting sun streak to our delight, porpoising and bowriding beneath a rising near-full moon.
At sunup this morning a newborn California gray whale leapt slowly out of the silky water next to our ship in a lazy farewell breach. We sailed between dune and mangrove out from the nursery waters where we recently had close encounters with endearing calves and mothers. A local fisherman piloted our ship through the smooth cumulus reflected canvas of the shallow lagoon surface to our morning’s selected anchorage.
Off an ivory dune embankment we launched our kayak fleet to access protective entangled stands of red and white mangroves. Zodiac cruisers explored the back recesses of the canals discovering guitarfish and other curiosities. Some folks walked up through the dunes to an ancient shell pile and a commanding view overlooking the southern part of this fifty-mile barrier island. Laughter abounded at the shore as people sank into loose sand on the falling tide.
The highlight of this day however must surely have been the indecipherable body ballet of three mating gray whales on our way out of Magdalena Bay. Various body parts presented themselves boldly above the surface in confused orientations while we watched and photographed awestruck. We are left to ponder this mysterious mating ménage of Earth’s farthest migrating mammal.
And out into the ocean the Sea Bird ventured, gently surfing sea swells before the wind, ending a mesmerizing series of close experiences amongst gray whales in their calving lagoons. Onward we sailed dolphins in tow, between the glitter streaks of the rising moon and the setting sun on our way south across the Tropic of Cancer towards the tip of the Baja California peninsula.
Beautifully patterned common dolphins fell in alongside and before our ship as we steamed out into the Pacific after three amazing days in gray whale breeding waters. These unassumingly named ‘lads before the wind’ as Melville called them emerged out of the setting sun streak to our delight, porpoising and bowriding beneath a rising near-full moon.
At sunup this morning a newborn California gray whale leapt slowly out of the silky water next to our ship in a lazy farewell breach. We sailed between dune and mangrove out from the nursery waters where we recently had close encounters with endearing calves and mothers. A local fisherman piloted our ship through the smooth cumulus reflected canvas of the shallow lagoon surface to our morning’s selected anchorage.
Off an ivory dune embankment we launched our kayak fleet to access protective entangled stands of red and white mangroves. Zodiac cruisers explored the back recesses of the canals discovering guitarfish and other curiosities. Some folks walked up through the dunes to an ancient shell pile and a commanding view overlooking the southern part of this fifty-mile barrier island. Laughter abounded at the shore as people sank into loose sand on the falling tide.
The highlight of this day however must surely have been the indecipherable body ballet of three mating gray whales on our way out of Magdalena Bay. Various body parts presented themselves boldly above the surface in confused orientations while we watched and photographed awestruck. We are left to ponder this mysterious mating ménage of Earth’s farthest migrating mammal.
And out into the ocean the Sea Bird ventured, gently surfing sea swells before the wind, ending a mesmerizing series of close experiences amongst gray whales in their calving lagoons. Onward we sailed dolphins in tow, between the glitter streaks of the rising moon and the setting sun on our way south across the Tropic of Cancer towards the tip of the Baja California peninsula.
