Cruising San Jose Channel & Isla Danzante
At first light National Geographic Sea Bird pulled anchor and ventured out into the Canal San Jose, bordered to the west by the Baja peninsula and Isla San Jose to the east. As the sun rose, we could not only feel but also confirm by sight that Mother Nature had turned off her wind machine overnight as we sat quietly at anchor in the lee of the island. How lucky we were to be able to continue our voyage by turning north once again.
It’s hard to believe that it was the same piece of water that we had transited just the day prior when the sea was running 6 to 8 feet before a powerful El Norte or northerly wind. But now in the early hours of morning, our ship of exploration slipped gently through the much calmer, azure blue waters.
Enroute to our intended destination of Isla Danzante, we were treated to a very special photo interpretation, Among Giants, presented by Flip Nicklin our special guest from National Geographic. He is widely regarded as the world’s leading photographer of cetacea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). And almost as if they knew Flip was aboard, a good sized pod of bottlenose dolphins raced over to ride our bow pressure wave; seemingly to see if he would snap their graceful images.
As our journey continued we were entranced by the sights of towering spires on the Baja peninsula along its backbone, the Sierra de la Giganta. Resulting from millions of years of volcanic activity later torn apart by further plate tectonic action that split Baja from mainland Mexico, the sierra is the defining geologic feature that can be seen for dozens of miles out in the Gulf of California, known to some as the Sea of Cortez.
After lunch, we made our anchorage at Honeymoon Cove on the northwest corner of Isla Danzante. There could not be a more idyllic place to spend the afternoon hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, swimming, or marveling in the sights and sounds of this beautiful island. The birding was especially good with brown pelicans, cormorants, kingfishers, turkey vultures, and two dazzling ospreys perched on a nearby hillside cactus. Our undersea specialist brought back amazing images from below the surface for evening Recap, so that even those of us who stayed dry could see the vast array of marine life that was below. A plankton tow was also performed; and by using our onboard video microscope, we could see the tiny organisms that create an amazingly rich soup of life near the bottom of the food chain.
This day that had started out like peeking under the lid of Pandora’s Box, turned out spectacularly well. As we sat at anchor through the evening hours the heavens treated us to display of thousands of stars, constellations, and brilliant planets overhead. Wow, what a day!
