Boca de Soledad and Hull Canal
After a quiet night anchored at Boca de Soledad off the northern end of Magdalena Island, the bright morning light found the Sea Bird “among the great whales,” quite literally: several gray whales could be seen around her. We were able to start a wonderful day of whale watching from inside the ship while enjoying breakfast in the dining room, one eye on the bacon and the other on the blows seen through the windows! Soon we were on the water, both the Zodiacs and the whales matching their speed just enough to counteract that of the strong incoming tide, so that we maintained pretty much the same location. What a wonderful way for all those baby whales to exercise and gain strength and muscles in preparation for their long journey to the north! Maybe influenced by the same kind of enthusiasm that a young kid gets during baseball practice, the young whales seemed to be having a good time, swimming playfully around their mothers, launching their heads out of the water and showing us their whitish baleen. Even their moms seemed contagiated by the playful mood, raising their heads out of the water in a more or less vertical position, an action called “spyhoping.” And as you can imagine, our own mood was not precisely a dark one, each spyhop was followed by an abundance of “oooohhs” and “clicks!”
Later on, we sailed south through the Hull Canal, watching the abundant bird life on the mangroves surrounding the narrow passage. Magnificent frigate birds, white ibises, double-crested cormorants and even the occasional peregrine falcon rivaled with bow-riding bottlenose dolphins for our attention. As this wonderful day slowly came to an end, we sailed through La Entrada, the largest and deepest of the several mouths that connect Magdalena Bay with the open Pacific. Several more gray whales, California sea lions and black-vented shearwaters were seen under the beautiful pink-colored sunset as we headed south. Tomorrow our journey will take us into some more great and exciting things, but tonight, I’m sure that I will dream of playful, clumsy babies showing their baleen…!
After a quiet night anchored at Boca de Soledad off the northern end of Magdalena Island, the bright morning light found the Sea Bird “among the great whales,” quite literally: several gray whales could be seen around her. We were able to start a wonderful day of whale watching from inside the ship while enjoying breakfast in the dining room, one eye on the bacon and the other on the blows seen through the windows! Soon we were on the water, both the Zodiacs and the whales matching their speed just enough to counteract that of the strong incoming tide, so that we maintained pretty much the same location. What a wonderful way for all those baby whales to exercise and gain strength and muscles in preparation for their long journey to the north! Maybe influenced by the same kind of enthusiasm that a young kid gets during baseball practice, the young whales seemed to be having a good time, swimming playfully around their mothers, launching their heads out of the water and showing us their whitish baleen. Even their moms seemed contagiated by the playful mood, raising their heads out of the water in a more or less vertical position, an action called “spyhoping.” And as you can imagine, our own mood was not precisely a dark one, each spyhop was followed by an abundance of “oooohhs” and “clicks!”
Later on, we sailed south through the Hull Canal, watching the abundant bird life on the mangroves surrounding the narrow passage. Magnificent frigate birds, white ibises, double-crested cormorants and even the occasional peregrine falcon rivaled with bow-riding bottlenose dolphins for our attention. As this wonderful day slowly came to an end, we sailed through La Entrada, the largest and deepest of the several mouths that connect Magdalena Bay with the open Pacific. Several more gray whales, California sea lions and black-vented shearwaters were seen under the beautiful pink-colored sunset as we headed south. Tomorrow our journey will take us into some more great and exciting things, but tonight, I’m sure that I will dream of playful, clumsy babies showing their baleen…!
