“Good morning, good morning. It’s a couple clicks before 6 and we’re approaching our anchorage. It’s going to be a beautiful sunrise and we have a large group of common dolphin and a couple of whale blows ahead of the ship…”
Another fabulous day in Baja begins with a quiet voice overhead, full of exciting potential.
We hurried up to the bow, armed with cameras, binoculars, and mugs of fresh, hot coffee. To starboard, distant blows can be seen against the backdrop of the Baja peninsula. To port side, hundreds of long-beaked common dolphin can be seen scattered across the sunrise brushed sea. Elegant terns hang above us in the sky just over the bow. Cutting into the water like knives, blue-footed boobies, brown boobies, pelicans, and Heermann’s gulls dive into the sea in a feeding frenzy. We are just north of Isla Coronado, it’s barely past 7am and we are now surrounded by what must be a thousand dolphins, feeding, leaping, and bow riding. With all this marine activity, Option A (an early morning landing at San Juanico Cove) is replaced by Option B, a morning at sea with marine mammals.
After breakfast, Jack gave us a most appropriate morning video lecture, “The Challenges of Photographing Dolphins.” As we step back into the bright morning sunlight, we discover the subject of our lecture has been standing by and now we have the opportunity to try out the techniques Jack has recommended for photographing dolphins. With the sun higher in the sky, the light penetrates deeper and we can clearly track the dolphins as they race about just below the water’s surface. With delight, we can clearly see very, very small young dolphins, swimming alongside the adults. They are referred to as “little pickles.”
Meanwhile, Iliana, our Undersea Specialist, took a team out in a Zodiac with the hydrophone and splash camera. As we stand by aboard the ship, Iliana broadcasts dolphin sounds back to the ship live. High-pitched communication sounds and the rapid clicking sounds of echolocation add yet another dimension to our experience.
With the dolphin’s sounds below and the cry of birds above, we are engulfed by the wonders presented to us today.
In the afternoon, we drop anchor in San Juanico Cove. The water is a lovely temperature and the snorkeling is excellent--a huge variety of invertebrates are seen along with stingrays and scorpion fish. After snorkeling, there is kayaking, late afternoon hikes and sunset Zodiac cruises. Recap brings us underwater video of this morning’s dolphins, which brought us back to where we began our fabulous day.
