Noon Position: N 22º 53′ 15.46″ – W 109º 52′ 58.70″
We arrived about 9:00 and tendered ashore about 40 minutes later.
Our excursion today was billed as “Sail, Snorkel & Paddle Board in the Sea of Cortez”
After tendering to the dock we boarded our sailing vessel and motored south from Cabo – along the Pacific coast – for a while.
Along the way we passed by the iconic vista of Cabo – the arch
It should be noted that our ship is moored in the bay and positioned such that, well, the “featured image” for this post (the one you see on the menu page) was actually taken from our balcony.
As we were motoring along on our way to the cove where we would recreate…
And we saw a humpback whale. Not far off. Who flipped her tail and dived before I could grab my phone and get a picture.
Arriving at the cove we donned snorkel gear (Cheryl and I bought masks and snorkels for this trip, but we borrowed their flippers) And hopped in the water…
The water was significantly cloudy, so not real good for pictures. Cheryl reports seeing a parrot fish. we saw some coral growing on rock formations but that’s about it.
I did, however take the opportunity to play with my new GoPro. I may edit down a small piece in the next couple of sea days. Things are a bit less cloudy on the video than they seemed. In the mean time here’s a snippet.
And we attended a lecture on “Christopher Columbus – the Story Behind the Story”. Really interesting to learn that not only most, but all of what we learned about Christopher Columbus in grade school was factually untrue, and why it was necessary to build that myth.
Bruce’s Brain Busters was a bit better. I didn’t hear our score because I was busy challenging one of the answers. I contend that a dulcimer is a strummed instrument while Bruce maintains that the strummed version is an Appalachian Dulcimer, so the word Dulcimer refers to what I know as a Hammered Dulcimer. Of course I’ll lose but you gotta try.
Following that debacle we stopped by the room to get warmer clothes and made our way up to deck 9 for star gazing.
Our ‘space guy’ Kyle arranged for the captain to turn off the upper deck lights so we could get a better view of the stars. Of course the moon, being just 2 days short of full kind-of messed with our viewing but Kyle was able to point out and talk about a few of the constellations. Our Resident Historian Michael also relayed the Native American tale of what we know as Orion’s belt and sword. It’s actually the hand of an evil chief cut off and thrown up to the heavens as punishment. In the center of the hand is a passage to another plane where shamans can travel and return. Interesting.
So that’s the day in Cabo. We’ve got 2 sea days to Los Angeles, and tonight we move to Pacific time – gaining another hour of sleep.
My pillow is calling. Nite all, R
Loving your blog. You look like you are having the best time and your photos are amazing.
Can you tell me if your stateroom is on the port or starboard side? Also is it difficult to learn WordPress?
Thank you for your nice compliment. I make no claim to be a photographer. I just try to show a bit of what we are seeing.
Interesting story. We were originally booked on the starboard side. Shortly after Kilouea erupted I happened to be on the phone with the World Cruise desk and mentioned how sad we were to be on the wrong side of the ship to see the volcano’s glow as we passed. And she said, “We’ll, as it happens…” so we are very happy in a port side stateroom.
We saw the spouting of 3 whales (the first mate said they were Humpback Whales who are in the process of migrating down the coast from the food rich waters of Alaska to the warm waters of the equator where they have their babies) – the “waving” whale was probably just sunning himself and ignoring all the little boats buzzing around him (rather like Yellowstone Park, you go to where the boats/cars are gathered to see what wildlife they have spotted). The Arch of Cabo is also home to sea lions – saw a couple sunning on the rocks and another who popped his head out of the water, saw our boat, and submerged again. The water was only between 60-70 degrees (I was the only one in a wet suit and VERY glad of it). I’m missing the warm Caribbean water. As we have been moving north we are losing the humidity and it’s getting much cooler. We used to have breakfast on our balcony at 82 degrees – at Los Cabos it was at 72 degrees and by Los Angeles we will be at 61 degrees.
Cracks me up that mom’s wearing jeans to the excursion. I had to look up what a tender is. Now I’m curios- how do you get into it? (Probably not jump?)
Temp was mid-70s. You know how she reacts to such frigid temperatures.
You basically step into a tender – unless the boat suddenly drops as you’re doing it. Then you jump.
They have 4 guys to help you across – 2 on the ship, 2 on the tender. The only real problem is that the tender tends to react to sea level changes (waves, wakes, and such) much more quickly and dramatically than the ship so while the ships ‘door’ and the tender door are at the same level in calm water, those levels tend to change constantly.
Fabulous photos and blog
I thought Deck 9 was verboten! Guess Kyle not only got the lights turned off, but it opened up for tourists. Can you do it nightly or only when arranged?
Deck 9 aft is for the crew. Deck 9 forward is open for star gazing, shuffleboard, putting, ping pong, etc.