National Geographic Venture departed Cabo San Lucas last night. We sailed all night and all day today, on our way to San Ignacio Lagoon, where we will arrive tomorrow. We had a very nice day, which started with a beautiful sunrise near Isla Santa Margarita, one of the four islands that form Bahia Magdalena. The mountains of these exotic terrains were adorned with thick fog sitting on their summits, and the early morning light made them look spectacular.
We had many sightings of marine mammals. Early on, we were followed by a pod of long beaked common dolphins, a few California sea lions, and we saw distant whale blows. We saw many humpback whales today. We stopped several times to observe and photograph the amazing behavior that humpback whales displayed today. We saw countless breaches, tail slaps and pectoral fin slaps, some far and some not so far. On one occasion we had a perfectly synchronized double breach, which took most of us by surprise.
Throughout the day we spent time looking for wildlife. Bird watching enthusiasts added a few species to their lists, like the Xanthus’s murrelet. Black-vented shearwater and Heerman’s gulls. We also saw many young brown pelicans, magnificent frigate birds, and a number of tricky-to-identify gull immatures.
All the sightings, and the mere fact that we are sailing the open Pacific Ocean, made this a special day.
