Blue, blue, blue. A nice big blue whale (do they come any other size?). We found the first blue whale of our season today, which was cause for great celebration. The Gulf of California is known for having a plethora of marine mammals either residing or migrating here, but finding the creatures in this vast ocean can be a challenge at times. We started with patience and the requisite sunrise composed of bubblegum pinks, cantaloupe oranges, and yellow mango hues reflected from the water, sky, and clouds. That in itself was spectacular. Glass-flat waters were a perfect reflective surface for this fruity color palette. We warmed up by enjoying a small pod of common dolphins that came to frolic in the pressure wave created by the bow of our ship. Poof. A blow south of us, made easier to observe by the dark island of Isla Santa Catalina as its backdrop. A slim grey body split the waters and then the dinkiest of dorsal fins followed an amazing amount of back before disappearing. Our patience paid off and this whale started to dive for about 15-minute intervals. The jackpot was a dive ending with the tail flukes raised high and then slipping into the sea. Other whales are known for regularly showing their flukes when diving, such as humpback whales, but not so much blue whales. This was an extra special sighting.
We continued south and found a small humpback whale. This individual was a little more reluctant, so we left it to its day and continued to our afternoon anchorage at Isla Santa Catalina. We started with snorkeling or cruising the shoreline in our expedition landing craft. As the day began to cool we started our island walks. The cooing of white-winged doves served as a backdrop to our narrative of the island and its inhabitants. We took turns becoming foreground in each other’s pictures to show the true scale of the massive cardon cacti. We were dwarfed as well as impressed. With a sunset nearly the mirror image of the sunrise we returned to National Geographic Sea Bird to share our discoveries and images we gathered during our first full day in Baja California. The day we found the blue whale.
