El Norte, the winter wind of Baja remained with the Sea Lionas she began her third day of cruising in the Gulf of California. Plans for the latter part of the day had changed due to wind conditions and slowly we were making our way south heading for La Paz, our final destination tomorrow.

Bette Lu had lookouts placed around the ship just in case there might be a sighting of marine mammals. As the Sea Lion surfed down waves moving with the wind, a large group of Common Dolphins, Delphinus capensis were spotted a short distance from our vessel. Announcements were made, and very quickly we were all on the bow just as the first group of dolphins began bow riding the pressure wave in front of the ship.

Captain Duke made announcements as he maneuvered the ship back in a northerly direction, following this large group of dolphins.

We watched the dolphins just under the surface of the waves, surfing down and heading for the bow of the Sea Lion. For the next hour and a half we watched the ballet of dolphins. There were at least 500 animals feeding and frolicking around the Sea Lion. The sun was setting behind the Sierra de la Giganta, the large mountain range that makes up most of the eastern side of the Baja Peninsula. Dust mixed with mist had created a soft layered grey on grey landscape out of the rugged mountains. As we looked west into the setting sun, Common Dolphins jumped through backlit waves creating silhouettes streaming in salt water and leaving all of us with a glorious final image to carry away from Baja and onward to the next leg of our journey into the Copper Canyon.