November 11, 2021 - We finally got a break in the weather. Today we had flat calm seas with beautiful skies. Unfortunately, we got our asses kicked around by the angry seas for the first three days. This made the long days on the water even longer trying to find the hungry marlin hunting bait balls. The choppy seas and the cloudy skies made it difficult to pinpoint where the marlin were. Of course, the first few days were not an entire bust, we did find a blue whale while we were out there, along with humpback whales, so despite the bumpy rides, the days were still good for wildlife. Just not great.

Today though, we found them. It was a really good day, and our guests all had a blast experiencing bait balls. We didn’t have long bait ball encounters, but we did get a good taste of some bait ball action. Overall it was a fantastic time, and our guests had fun. They even helped out a turtle in distress. It got trapped in some fishing line, and our friends, Brad and his girl Alyssa helped out the turtle and managed to untangle the poor baby. What was so great was the turtle allowed them to help - it did not struggle or move as they were removing the ropes—wicked cool. Tomorrow the weather will be even better than today, and I am excited about what the day has in store for us.

This was one of the reports I wrote from two weeks spent at sea on our marlin baitball expedition this past November. Thankfully, the weather was kind to us for the rest of the trip, but it was brutal on the body those first three days. But I always say, if you want epic moments out on the ocean, you have to put in the time, take the hits when the ocean is angry, and when she shines on you, she will really shine… and she did. We were patient, and it paid off. We had great moments on this trip, with many animals and some beautiful days at sea.

The marlin were running hard, and they were everywhere. This was also a good year for schooling mobula rays, sea turtles, and whales. This season, the whales were out in full force, humpbacks, blue whales, and hunting brides whales.

We had such a good time this year, there was just so much going on. When you visit places like this, you are always hoping for encounters that our guests will get excited about. I am happy to report that yes they were happy and more. I spent two weeks here, and it just did not feel like it was enough time. I really wanted more. Maybe next year I will stay longer?

Here are some images from the trip. I do hope you enjoy…

On one weather day we swam with the sealions in the Kelp Beds.

5am starts allowed us to visit Bird Island to get some images of the rising sun when the birds were starting their day.

Thank you for reading my blog!

What a day today was! It was an incredible day. Sadly we are still zero for orcas, but today was so much fun. Exhausting, but fun. We went out to look for sea pandas and the big schools of Mobula rays. Well, it turned out the orcas were over in Cabo today. Too far for us to get to, but despite not having those badasses here, we had incredible encounters with massive schools of Mobula rays. They were popcorning all over the place. I snapped some images but could not get that perfect shot. So I gave up for a bit and jumped in to enjoy the incredible underwater show.

After we finished up with the mobulas, we cruised by a small island with a pretty healthy sea lion colony. Most of the sea lions were not there as it is breeding season for them, and love is in the air, along with very aggressive male sea lions. We left the colony, but before we did, I experienced some wicked cool magic. Up high in the rocks was a lifer sea bird for me - A blue-footed boobie! It was perched high up on the cliffs. I excitedly snapped a proof of life shot of this very iconic bird. I thought I would need to visit the Galapagos for a shot at this famous beauty. It turns out they frequently visit Baja. I still have plans to visit the Galapagos, but happy to have seen this bird. I want better images of it, but glad to have gotten this shot.

We left the colony and went out to look for finback whales to photograph. We found them pretty quickly, but they were shy and stayed far away from our boat. So we watched them for a little while then moved on. Shortly after, we ran into a superpod of common dolphins hunting sardines. It was chaotic and so much fun to watch. We tried jumping in several times, but the visibility was total crap. So we watched a fantastic topside show.

We left the bait ball and started motoring back to port, all of us sunburnt and exhausted from a bit of ocean fun. On our way in, we encountered a big pod of those beautiful black bottlenose dolphins. They started using our boats wake to launch themselves out of the water, and we were treated to a fantastic aerial show. While we were watching them, one of our friends, Garin, said, “I just don’t understand how anyone could lock up these beautiful things in an aquarium.” I have to agree with him.

They all should be wild and free.

Overall it was an amazing day out at sea. Looking forward to the surprises tomorrow has in store for us—can’t wait.

Ok, super tired and headed to bed. Thank you for reading, guys.

Marlin Mayhem!

What a Fun, Fun Day at Sea.