Day Three - A Rough Day at Sea.

Mathias chumming with fresh bait… Image by Chris Kemper

Well, another tough day out on the ocean. This morning we arrived at our boat, and it was a bit chilly with some wind in the marina. Signs that it was going to be rough out on the ocean. We decided to try a different spot to see if we would get better results. The site we visited was good a week ago but went cold for us the first two days.

So we tried a seamount that was a few miles closer to land. Unfortunately, the water here was green and not the blue we had had the previous two days. But perhaps the green water would help us find those elusive sharks. Green also means the water here was colder, which might help us with the blue sharks. They tend to like the cooler waters.

As we chummed for a few hours, the winds kept building, and with it came the white caps. The swells were building, and it was getting choppy. Finally, about four-plus hours into chumming, we saw our first shark. Well, Brad thought he saw a blue shark earlier, but no one else did, so we marked it off as a phantom shark.

The shark that arrived we all saw it. It cruised in on a wave as it headed towards our hang baits. It was not a mako or a blue. It was a smooth hammerhead! Excitedly we all started gearing up. I tried to rush everyone because the one thing I know about these oceanic hammerheads is that they do not stick around very long.

Sadly I was right. The shark left as fast as it arrived. A few of us got in the water, but the shark was gone. No one saw it in the water. Damn it.

The swells were building dangerously high, so we made a safety call. We pulled all our bait, dumped the chum, and called it a day. We slowly motored back to port in a very messy ocean.

The waves were high and made for an exciting ride back home.

As we motored back to port, we encountered another smooth hammerhead along the way. It was swimming on the surface; we watched it for a quick minute, called it a few dirty names for not showing up to our chum slick, then left it alone.

Sadly today was not our day, moral is low, but thankfully we still have two more days, and tomorrow looks fantastic.

In fact, I genuinely believe tomorrow will be an excellent wildlife day at sea.

I can feel it!

Day One off Baja - The Search for Mako Sharks Begins!

Day 1 - The weather was amazing! Today was a beautiful day at sea. The sun was out, and the water was nice and calm. It was so good, everything you hope for when you set out on an open ocean adventure. There was some wind, but we needed that to help us chum.

On the way out, we encountered several humpback whales. The whales were in the green water near the island, and we wanted sharks so we pressed on.

We motored out for about ten miles, hit our marks, and killed the engine to start chumming. Our group was eager to find us some makos. Makos are always the stars of these pelagic shark dives. Blue sharks are amazing, but makos are just rock stars.

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After about 3 hours of chumming, we had our first shark show up. It was a nice-sized silky shark, which was a surprise because they are not supposed to be here. It is the wrong time of year for silkies.

They obviously did not get the memo.

Our group quickly geared up to jump in. I decided to stay on board and watch from the boat. Everyone else jumped in with our trusty guide and safety diver, Fer. I wanted them to get some solid water time with this shark. Just in case, it decided not to stay.

After a good 30 minutes, the shark disappeared. Shortly after that, a second silky appeared. This one was a bit shy and would not come in close.

It didn’t stay long.

silky shark

The shark returned after a while, and I jumped in to get a look at it. Again, it remained shy and did not come in close. I snapped a few images, but nothing I got excited about. I did not bother opening up my camera housing to look at the images.

We chummed for another hour but no other sharks came in. After that we called it a day and headed in. It was a good day and a fun way to kick off the trip. Of course as I sit here journaling about the day, I am already excited about Day Two… day two is going to be even better, and we will find our makos.

I can feel it!

Mako Shark Expedition Highlights

February 21, 2021 (2:49 PM Sunday) - Travel day, flying home to Texas. I have been gone for two weeks for this trip. Lots of eating out, sharing time with guests, and I did stay pretty busy with wildlife on this trip. However, I did not film as much as I should have, nor did I write as much as I needed to - so behind on all of it, sorry guys. I am not making good on my word. I frustrate myself because I failed to keep proper records of this adventure. I have had this discussion so many times with myself. Talking about it and doing it are two very different things. Sometimes you come back from spending all day on the water and the last thing you want to do is write or record yourself, but I will get better at it. Ok, enough with what is going on in my head, on to the blog…

On our first day out, we ran into this baby humpback whale breaching over and over. It was such a happy baby, enjoying being alive.

Our mako trip went so well; I am very proud of it. We encountered makos every day we were out on the ocean. On day one, the mako only stayed for around 20 minutes, not a lengthy encounter, but enough for everyone to see it and get excited about seeing more makos. It was a small shark, about 3 feet long, super cute. On our second day, we had a mako show up about 20 minutes into chumming, a record for me. This shark stayed with us for about 45 minutes before it left. I think it was intimidated, because it was really tiny.

After that, we had two blue sharks show up about 3 hours later. Now that is a typical wait for oceanic sharks. We swam with them for about an hour, but finally had to call it a day. Conditions started getting worse, so we were forced to leave. Blue sharks are amazing sharks, they are very bold and will come in and stay for extended periods of time. It is a species shark divers dream of encountering. Very photogenic and not shy at all.

On our final day, we began chumming, and about ten minutes into the chum, we noticed a small brown-looking animal swimming towards us. We thought it was a sea lion at first, but it was blowing water out of a spout, so we thought it was a pilot whale. But it was brown; pilot whales are black. Then Fer had a moment when she realized it was a baby sperm whale. We automatically pulled up the chum and went after the whales, hoping for a shot at seeing them underwater. 

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I managed to snap one image that I am happy with. The rest are terrible due to the bad vis. I still feel so lucky to have spent some time with them. It truly was a dream come true for me.

This was a huge pod of whales, at least 20-30 members strong. They were scattered all over the ocean, hunting, I believe? We were all on fire. For whale encounters, sperm whales are one of the most coveted whales to hopefully encounter.

Of course with that first jump, reality hit hard - the visibility was horrible. We found out that unless we were within 10 feet of the animal, we could not see it. So it made the encounters a bit more intense. Everyone was super gung ho about it and did not mind, but it was always a shock to see this massive animal just appear out the green soup. Sometimes it seemed like the sperm whales were shocked as well. On one encounter one of the whales took a crap and then dove straight down. Our group was left floating next to the muddy water, huge smile on our faces. The pod was mostly females, with a few babies. The babies would stay at the surface while the adults would drop down to the depths, my guess they were hunting. I do not think we encountered any bulls, but there could have possibly been juvenile males there. 

The best encounter of the day was when our buddy Roberta swam towards a group of about three sperm whales. She could not see them until they were very close, and when she looked up they were right in front of her. One of the whales had its mouth open, not sure if it did that to show her it’s very lethal pair of teeth or if it already was swimming that way. She filmed the encounter and this big beautiful whale close up. I pulled a frame grab from the clip. Such an impressive predator.

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Towards the end of the day while we were following the whales, we saw a mako swimming close to the surface. Officially making it three days in a row that we saw makos. This was such an amazing trip, filled with beautiful wildlife and surprises. It was everything you want from an open ocean adventure off the coast of Baja. Plenty of shark action and whale encounters as a bonus.

Baja always delivers. 

A happy happy thank you to all our friends who joined us for this adventure. Big hug until the next one my friends!