Magdalena Bay
0615 - It is still dark while we quietly sip coffee in the ship’s lounge.
0630 - In pre-dawn twilight, bundled in fleeces and windbreakers, we board Zodiacs with high hopes of seeing gray whales.
Bahia Magdalena wakes up and so do we.
Dawn gently illuminates the bay and the endless, elegant sand dunes of Isla Magdalena. Hundreds of cormorants and pelicans fly past us in perfectly straight lines, low over the waves. They are on their morning commute. A gray whale exhales, and its blow hangs in the air. A mottled gray back rolls at the water’s surface. In the distance, there are more blows.
A gray whale mother and calf swim near our idling Zodiac. We reach over the sides of the Zodiac, and gently splash the water with our hands. The whales approach the boat! The mother’s enormous gray back disappears below our boat. Suddenly the fifteen foot long calf appears right alongside our Zodiac; it lifts its head, and touches the pontoon of the boat. The calf’s head is dimpled, and in every dimple there is a stiff, pale hair. We reach out and touch the small whale. What does it feel like? Spongier than expected, and very smooth and soft. The calf lifts its head a little higher, and more of us reach out to feel the precious skin. Mother lifts her mottled, 30 ton body, and we see whitish barnacles on the left side of her head and back.
Mother and baby continue this delicate, priceless encounter. They swim up to our rubber boat, and we reach out with longing, excited hands. Human fingers contact gray whale skin, and our hearts and minds swell with connection and desire. Finally we return to Sea Lion, elated, excited, hands wet, minds bursting. We are the luckiest humans on Earth this morning!
Later in the day we stop to explore mangroves along the southern portion of Isla Magdalena. We paddle kayaks into mangrove channels, and savor the solitude, silence and richness of the mangroves. Some of us investigate the mangrove habitat by Zodiac, and we find herons and egrets wading along exposed mudflats.
It is now sunset and clouds turn soft shades of pink and blue. The ship rocks gently in ocean waves as we leave Magdalena Bay and enter the Pacific Ocean. Gray whales breathe and blow around us here in La Entrada. We will be motoring south all night, and by sunrise we shall be near the southern tip of Baja California.
I think I will dream of gray whales tonight.
0615 - It is still dark while we quietly sip coffee in the ship’s lounge.
0630 - In pre-dawn twilight, bundled in fleeces and windbreakers, we board Zodiacs with high hopes of seeing gray whales.
Bahia Magdalena wakes up and so do we.
Dawn gently illuminates the bay and the endless, elegant sand dunes of Isla Magdalena. Hundreds of cormorants and pelicans fly past us in perfectly straight lines, low over the waves. They are on their morning commute. A gray whale exhales, and its blow hangs in the air. A mottled gray back rolls at the water’s surface. In the distance, there are more blows.
A gray whale mother and calf swim near our idling Zodiac. We reach over the sides of the Zodiac, and gently splash the water with our hands. The whales approach the boat! The mother’s enormous gray back disappears below our boat. Suddenly the fifteen foot long calf appears right alongside our Zodiac; it lifts its head, and touches the pontoon of the boat. The calf’s head is dimpled, and in every dimple there is a stiff, pale hair. We reach out and touch the small whale. What does it feel like? Spongier than expected, and very smooth and soft. The calf lifts its head a little higher, and more of us reach out to feel the precious skin. Mother lifts her mottled, 30 ton body, and we see whitish barnacles on the left side of her head and back.
Mother and baby continue this delicate, priceless encounter. They swim up to our rubber boat, and we reach out with longing, excited hands. Human fingers contact gray whale skin, and our hearts and minds swell with connection and desire. Finally we return to Sea Lion, elated, excited, hands wet, minds bursting. We are the luckiest humans on Earth this morning!
Later in the day we stop to explore mangroves along the southern portion of Isla Magdalena. We paddle kayaks into mangrove channels, and savor the solitude, silence and richness of the mangroves. Some of us investigate the mangrove habitat by Zodiac, and we find herons and egrets wading along exposed mudflats.
It is now sunset and clouds turn soft shades of pink and blue. The ship rocks gently in ocean waves as we leave Magdalena Bay and enter the Pacific Ocean. Gray whales breathe and blow around us here in La Entrada. We will be motoring south all night, and by sunrise we shall be near the southern tip of Baja California.
I think I will dream of gray whales tonight.
