Back in Punta Mita

I made it back to Punta Mita, after an exciting time over in the Gulf of California.  My friend Teague flew in to La Paz and we left on a strong north wind to head down towards an offshore island before going back to Punta Mita.  

I had got a new spinnaker (an A2, which is the running sail, not a reaching sail) and it was super useful on this trip.  

Here's Teague on the bow with a lot of common dolphins around.

On the way in to Cabo Frailes the dolphins were all over the place.  When we got in to anchor there were a ton of Humpback whales too, and they sang all night long very loud.  We could hear them through the boat.

We did a little skiff tour around and saw some sea lions hauled out. 

And a goat up on the hill.  I can't tell if this is a male goat (and those are the testicles) or something else going on.  If it is a male, then that's gotta hurt walking around on the rocks.  

From Frailes, we left out into the open ocean.  With the spinnaker up we were able to get on plane, and the look off the back is like this:

After a day and a night and a day we got to Isla San Benedicto.  There is a surf wave there and I had to try it out, so here I am surfing a slabby wave in sharky waters.

The island was really cool, with loads of sharks and rays in the water and super clear visibility.  But the wind was blowing volcanic dust all over the boat and so I am still trying to get the dust to come off.

There were nesting Masked Boobies there

And the unexploded bomb was still around.

The nesting Albatrosses were there too, and this is a Laysan Albatross parent caring for a baby.

The bill on theses birds is so interesting.

The babies are also very stunning in how they stand out, but also blend in to the background.

A young Greater Frigatebird in a nest as well.

The wind tears the cinders from the island and sends them everywhere

Another look at the baby albatross

More Masked Boobies

And there was a young Tropicbird that was in the water, unable to fly.  I think it may have fallen (or jumped) from a nest and didn't make the first flight, and was cold.  Hopefully it will make it.

The volcano is an amazing sight with the cinder cone, but it was time to leave.

On the way home we took two days and two nights to get in, and it was a pretty rough crossing, but all the water that washed over the boat cleaned off most of the volcanic dust.  We got to La Cruz and went to a dock for a few hours and washed the boat off, then sailed back up to Punta Mita.  I am done with the Mexico Uncruise stuff, so I have until May 18 before I work next, and that will be in Alaska.

Here's a cute video of a baby albatross learning to walk

 

Frailes Sunrise

 I'm out on a personal trip with my friend Teague, from Bellingham.  We left La Paz on sunday and went out to a small bay just outside the harbor to clean the bottom, then took off again into a bit of wind to get around the corner and down to Cerralvo Island, where we spent the night.  Then yesterday we sailed down to Cabo Frailes.  Its the morning here and I could hear a humpback whale singing through the hull of the boat, and I turned on the hydrophone and the camera to record the sounds and sights of a sunrise morning. Its a pretty boring video, but you might like it.

I think we will try to go to San Benedicto Island, and take off today for it.  Its a two day trip, and then it will get windy and then we'll have a two day trip back to Vallarta.  I should be able to get starlink to work at San Benedicto to update things there.

Done with work

In the last week I saw quite a few Blue Whales, and I think they might be having a last hurrah before they depart, to wherever they go.  Or maybe not?

At Punta Salinas there were these two cute oystercatchers looking at each other

We went to the north side of Isla San Jose and it was neat going to a place I had not been before

There were cliffs of shells and sand

and quite a few dolphins

And a hammerhead shark swam by

Here's a gray thrasher

And some palm leaves in the oasis at agua verde

A Brant's cormorant with breeding plumage on

and an oystercatcher catching an urchin.  Urchincatcher?

I also saw a rattlesnake.  We don't often see these around because its too cold for them I think, but this one was out early.

And I found a crab on a mangrove.  There is a special mangrove crab, but I'd never heard of it before this one.  

I finished work on saturday and then hopped onto Aquila and took off this morning from La Paz.  I got to outside the harbor and anchored and cleaned the bottom really good then sailed around to Isla Cerralvo, where I am now.  Tomorrow I hope to get to Cabo Frailes, to look for whales.  

My plan is to go to San Benedicto on my way back to Vallarta, so that's about 350 miles out of the way.  But I like the place.  
 

Gray Thrasher

 I'd seen this guy before, but this time I got a nice video with the camera very steady. 

Sperm Whale video

 We were in the San Jose channel and there were a few blue whales around, but it was about time to start doing the morning talks and go inside, except we saw a blow that looked funny.  When it fluked we decided to wait for it to come up again, but it took 20 minutes, and then we had a really good idea that it was not a humpback.  When it came up we had some looks at it as it breathed a lot, something like 10-15 times, then it was down again, and the third surfacing we ended up reasonably close to it and I got this video.  The sea state was kindy bumpy, but I'm on the ship, so its more smooth than in a skiff.  

There is a cookie cutter shark bite in the tail, and I think a scar from entanglement in a net or fishing line, like a long line, on the right side fluke.  I wonder if this whale was poaching fish from lines off southeast alaska at one time.  I have heard they used to do that a lot.  

Its also amazing, the wrinkles on the body.  A beautiful animal.

Third week

I had a nice skiff tour with a lot of common dolphins...

And another look at this elephant tree, I like it.  

A grey Thrasher.  

A better look

I like the succulents here.  

An isla san francisco Whiptail

Yellow legged gull

Dawn at isla cerralvo

A baby goat on isla cerralvo

More common dolphins

And I also took a few videos.

Photos of Desserts from our pastry Chef

One of our pastry chefs, Mira, asked me to take some photos of her desserts, so here they are!  Hopefully she can find these and download them too.  Click on them for higher resolution.

 

A very nice week

 

Sometimes it loads the pictures backwards...  So in reverse!

We went to Cerralvo island, which is a cool spot that I've been a few times, but also I hear about really cool things there.  I've not before noticed the big barrel cactus there, so that is a neat thing.  They are similar to the barrel cactus on isla Santa Catalina, but not the same.

There are goats there, and some have left their feet behind...

Another shot of the barrel cactus.  The biggest I saw was about 2 ft wide and 8 ft tall

At Los islotes, the sea lions were nice

And we did an exploration of the lagoon at Amortajada.  It is very tidal dependent and only on nice high tides can you get in and out, but with the full moon we were able to do it.

I found this Brant's cormorant in breeding plumage and its fabulous

And a murrelet, which I think is a Craveli's murrelet

We also had some skiff tours with hundreds of common dolphin

This frigate was really bent weirdly.  The wings are upside down.

Dawn at the east end of isla Carmen

A pelican with bent wings

A nice oystercatcher

A bud from a cardon

A cool elephant tree trunk

Gnarled ironwood

Bottlenose dolphins

And some blue whale photos

And a minke whale!  First one I've seen in Baja

Sunrise over isla san diego