Sunrise on Monday, February 20
The panga picked us up from Kosmos at 0740.
It was a 20-minute ride back to the mouth of the bay in their fast panga, as opposed to the over 1.5 hours that it had taken us with Kosmos yesterday. It was the perfect day for whale watching, with light, variable winds and totally flat seas, thus making the whales easy to spot. Only licensed tour operators were allowed to get close to the whales, so taking our dinghy back to the mouth entrance in hopes of seeing them on our own would have been illegal.
On our circumnavigation, we went on a couple of whale watching tours, one in Dominica and one in Tonga. In Dominica, we hadn’t gotten all that close to the whales. In Tonga, the tour operator had gotten us quite close to the whales, as in hundreds of yards away. Christi had even jumped in the water and swam above them. The male whales watched her swim, but they made made sure to stay well below her, so far below that it was hard to for her to see them.
We’d been told that here in Magdalena Bay, the pangas got very close to the whales and that the views were phenomenal. After seeing the pangas yesterday, we could attest that was true. We’d also been told that sometimes curious baby whales would approach the pangas and watch the people inside the boat. We’d also heard reports that sometimes the babies would let people touch them!
We were hoping that we’d have an experience similar to when the baby whale shark circled Kosmos numerous times in Ensenada el Pescador. We thought that the baby whale shark was curious about Kosmos and was checking her out, then once its curiosity was satisfied, it moved on. Having a baby whale circle a panga would be amazing, as we’d be low to the water and able to get a 360-degree view of it.
As we approached the mouth of the bay, we could see tons of whale activity. The spouts from the whales’ blowholes looked like smoke, and there were so many spouts that it looked like there was a factory in the distance. Once we were close enough to see the spouts, the captain slowed down to an idle.
It was only a minute or two after slowing down that we noticed there was a whale very close to us.
Then we realized there was another one near it, and another one, and another one… at least five in a row. Within no time, the whales put on a show for us. So many of them were swimming on the surface that we were overwhelmed with so many to look at in so many directions.
We could hear them breathing all around us; it almost sounded like a choir. Eric thought that there were probably twenty whales surrounding us, Christi thought there were more.
Before long, a baby whale came up to the boat.
He went under the boat, then popped his head up on the other side and looked at us a little more (Keith’s post has those videos). Then he slid up to the boat and let the tour operator pet it. Then he started playing with us! Going under the boat and popping up, looking at us, coming up close to be petted, intentionally blowing water on us.
Eventually, another boat came and the whale bounced between the two boats.
Then a third approached, and the whale bounced between the three of us, but came to us the most. Here was the whale approaching the new boat to check it out, then sidling up to the boat to be petted.
Then a fourth approached, and our guide said he’d back off so that the other boats could get more time with the whale. As far as we could tell, it seemed like the baby whale took off shortly after we backed away from him.
Once the baby was out of sight, it was very, very calm on the water. It seemed like the whales had all gone up to the surface together as a group and had gone back down together as a group. After a few minutes of waiting, it was time to go back to Kosmos. As we were slowly motoring away, we saw spouts and activity from four whales. It seemed they were coming back up now. We were so amazed at our lucky timing — we’d arrived while so many whales were on the surface and were leaving when there weren’t many on the surface.
The panga dropped us off at Kosmos a little bit before 1030.