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.