Our intended destinations for this day were the rich waters south of Isla Carmen and the enchanted island of Santa Catalina. However, as happens sometimes at sea, the wind rose and we were forced to turn around and look for shelter at beautiful Bahia Media Luna on Isla San Francisco. During the morning, then, we passed along the steep front of the Sierra de la Giganta and watched the light and shadows play on the spectacular, twenty million-year-old volcanic layers exposed by ages of erosion. These mountains were originally the western slopes of a massive band of volcanoes that spewed untold thousands of feet of pyroclastics on both sides of what is now the Sea of Cortez. Amazingly enough, in a few days on the Copper Canyon portion of our trip, we will be traveling by train through the eastern flank of these same volcanic sediments, the Baja California Peninsula having split off from the mainland mountain counterparts about 5 million years ago.
As we watched the spectacular scenery of this wild portion of Baja California, the call came from deck that a whale spout had been spotted about one half mile off the bow. Many of us saw the whale spout twice and then sound before it was lost in the rough and wind-chopped water. However, a few moments later a large school of bottlenose dolphins gathered around our little ship and played on the bow for over 15 minutes. We watched in awe as these large dolphins leaped and rolled on their sides to watch us watching them. Soon we were safely at anchor in Bahia Media Luna and spent the afternoon at Isla San Francisco snorkeling, hiking, beachcombing and taking advantage of a good minus tide for observing the creatures of the intertidal. It was a wonderful and rich first day aboard the Sea Lion and whet our appetite for the adventures awaiting us over the next few days.
