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magdalena bay grey whales

DAY ONE with the Grey Whales!

This blog is from my travel journal. The signal in Puerto San Carlos where we visit the grey whales is horrible so I was not able to do much while I was there. But I am back in Texas, playing catch up on blogs and images and emails. I wanted to share moments and memories from our second trip of the season…

February 7, 2022 - Day one of our grey whale expedition. The adventure begins. We are in Puerto San Carlos, with the next four days to be spent seeking out grey whales off Magdalena Bay.

We headed out in two boats; Mari took one boat with the girls and our buddy Jay, I took another boat out with the guys. We split the boats up into two groups to keep our numbers small. I prefer to have only four people in the boats with us so that there is plenty of room to lean over and play with the whales when they approach.

Eva and Lori are new to the wildlife world, but are now very addicted. Welcome to our Normal Ladies.

We left the dock super early and headed out in search of adventure. Damn, I love saying that. San Carlos during this time of year is chilly. It is the winter season, and the mornings are cold. So we were all bundled up as we motored across the Bay. We snapped images of the rising sun as we headed out.

It took us an hour to get to the area where the grey whales hang out. Once we arrived, we enjoyed the sight and sounds of whale blows scattered all around. The sound of a whale coming up for a breath of air is genuinely one of the most incredible sounds you will ever hear in nature. Hearing several blows all around you - there are no words for how epic that is, love that sound!

We hung out with the whales for the rest of the day, patiently waiting for a flirty female to approach our boat. After about thirty minutes, we had whales swim up and begin rolling and rubbing up against our boat. The excitement you see with everyone on the boat, including me, is the best.

I love how fired up everyone gets when a whale approaches. The boys dropped their cameras in, snapping away as the whales came in for a rub. On Mari’s boat, the girls squealed with excitement. Yes, there were a lot of girls screaming on her boat, probably on mine too, BUT, I chose to ignore those sounds to protect the innocent. Lol

We played with the whales for a long time. The whales were swimming from boat to boat, seeking out attention. For some reason, they enjoyed visiting Mari’s boat compared to ours. My guess is the girls were more handsy with the whales than we were. There was more focus on snapping underwater images of them than playing with them on our boat. So I guess the whales got bored and went back to them for more love.

In the afternoon, our Captain spotted many birds near the surface, about two miles away. Signs that there might be a baitball, so he asked us if we wanted to check it out, and off we went. We picked up Jay from Mari’s boat and headed out to the open ocean.

Diving pelicans, picking off sardines from the baitball.

We got closer and ended up motoring into a superpod of common dolphins—tens of thousands of dolphins were in the area hunting sardines. We tried a few jumps with them, but they kept their distance and dropped down deep, too deep for us at least. We could see them, but they were not close enough to try and snap images of them.

So we just enjoyed the topside show they gave us. It was a lot of fun trying to photograph them. Snapping jumping images of dolphins is always a challenge, you get a card full of crappy images. But every once in a while you get lucky and snap a gem.

For scenes like this, video always tells a better story of what we are experiencing. Plus with video, you can capture the sounds that thousands of dolphins make is fire! There are so many dolphins, you can actually hear their underwater whistles while standing on the boat.

After we left the dolphins, we arrived at the baitball, and jumped in to see what what was left of it. It was still a nice-sized baitball of sardines, with about 6 to 7 sea lions hunting them. It was a static ball, and the sea lions were extremely friendly with us and kept coming up to our cameras. The water was green, the visibility was not great and it was freezing cold - but damn was it fun! We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then returned to the Bay to finish up our day with the whales.

Overall it was a fantastic first day in and on the water. We are already looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

Thank you guys for reading.

The 2022 Travel Season is About to Begin!

January 26, 2022 - The month is freaking gone! Damn, where does the time go?

So this week, I got fired up to write, I wrote a blog earlier this week, but decided to write another one. I do love writing.

I also was going to cut a new video blog, for the second part of our 2021 anaconda diving trip. Check out the first one if you have not seen it.

However, I was inspired to share a video from last season’s Baja shark trip. So I will be cutting together a short vlog from our 2021 mako and blue shark trip instead - which will be out on Friday or Saturday (hopefully Friday). - NOTE; I apologize, I was not able to cut a video these past two days… got tied up prepping to leave to Mexico. But planning to get some great stuff this season for you guys.

Our first trip for the 2022 season is for makos and blue sharks off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

short fin mako shark

blue shark

Historically, I have run this trip as a three-day expedition; however, I am running this years trip as a five-day. I am pleased about this because it gives us more time to see if we can encounter more wildlife, and right now, Cabo is on fire; whales, orcas, mobulas, and lots of sharks.

It is just alive and going off, and I am very excited about seeing what we might find out there. 

Last year we had a really good trip, with surprise visitors on our final day out there.

SPERM WHALES!

We were chumming for sharks when we saw a lot of blows in the distance. Once we figured out what they were, we ditched the chum and took off after them. We ended up spending the rest of our day swimming with a family of sperm whales.

An extremely close encounter with a massive sperm whale. Image by Roberta Manchino

Unfortunately, the visibility was not the best, the water was green and murky. The encounters were a bit intimidating because you could not see the whales until they were less than 20 feet away from you.

Even though the vis sucked, it was epic… we had sperm whales! At the end of the day we were all exhausted, our nerves were shot, but so very happy.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the trip, and the unknown, and the magic, and the fun with our guests… and of course the sharks. Plus, Cabo is always a fun town to hang out in after a day in and on the water.

After our mako trip, we leave Cabo and head North to San Carlos to Magdalena Bay for the annual grey whale migration. Mag Bay is one of my favorite places in the world to visit. The wildlife here is all-time great.

San Carlos is a sleepy little fishing town, with really nothing going on most of the year. Tourists flock here during grey whale season, and that was it. When the whales left, the locals would revert to fishing, and the town would go quiet again.

Of course, when tourists started visiting Mag Bay for the marlin migration, in the wintertime, the town exploded with tourism again. But there is twice as many people there for marlin season, then the grey whale season. The amount of people wanting to swim with the marlin is something that still surprises the locals. 

Anyway, the area was initially made famous for its friendly grey whales. The greys migrate here to breed, socialize, and pup, then they head off to where ever it is that they go for the rest of the year.

The whales here are so much fun, they will swim up to the boats, ask for face rubs, and they will do it over and over again. It is such a fantastic feeling having a wild animal like this come up to you and want you to give them a rub. 

The experience is truly magical; there is nothing like it in the world. This expedition is possibly one of the most underrated trips that we offer. Because people just do not understand how EPIC an encounter like this truly is. 

Anyway, I will be posting a lot while I am in Cabo, and it will slow down when I am in San Carlos because the wifi sucks. But that is ok and part of the experience. Sometimes it is nice to unplug for a bit and just get lost in nature. Mag Bay is one hell of a great place to do that too. 

Oh yeah, while I am there, I will set up my camera traps again. A couple of years ago, I brought a camera trap out there to try and find a good spot for coyotes. We found a great site, not only for coyotes but also for bobcats. So I will set the cameras up again and see if the cat action is still good.

I am addicted to those amazing looking wild cats.

If it is, then I will bring a more sophisticated camera trap set up in the wintertime when I return to try and capture high res stills of these Baja wild cats. (more on that project later)

Bobcat scent marking in front of our camera trap. We managed to record three different cats at this spot.

Well, that is my update for today, I need to get back to packing for the trip and I think I have carried on for a while.

Get ready for more than s few posts over the coming weeks, our season is about to begin, and we get to go back out to do what we love… all day, every day!

Thank you for reading.

Grey Whale Expedition Photo Gallery

I hated leaving Magdalena Bay this season, but at the same time, I was ready to go because it was cold as hell. The arctic front that is sweeping across the US is also affecting Baja at the moment, and it is cold. But so worth it being out there. The memories I am left with are some of the best I have ever experienced on the ocean. I am thrilled that our whale encounters have been extraordinary, and it is tough to put it into words. But if it were only the whales we were here for, we would miss everything special about Magdalena Bay. The birdlife is so unique as well, we had a blast with them. The images I captured on this trip are the best I have ever captured here, and I am excited about sharing them with you. So here is a photo album from this season’s trip. I do hope you enjoy it.

mari 2.jpg