We were up at the crack of dawn – literally.  We were out on deck in time to catch the sunrise over Isla Espiritu Santo to our starboard (right) and colonies of sea lions and various birds to our port (left).  We spent a few (translation: “lots of”) minutes enjoying/photographing both before heading down to breakfast.

Following breakfast we adjourned to the lounge for the intro talk by the Expedition Team.  They introduced themselves; talked about daily sign-ups, procedures, and such; issued wet suits, fins, goggles; and conducted a sign-up for this afternoon’s activities.

That last (the sign-up process) was interrupted by the sighting of a pod of long-beak dolphins off our port side hunting, riding our bow wave, and generally frolicking.  Remember the “3 W’s” rule?  The boat stopped so we could take plenty of time to observe.  Also, at this time our resident naturalist, himself a cetation biologist, conducted an impromptu lecture on what we were seeing.  He talked about identification, classifications, behaviors, and answered questions for the better part of an hour.  It was fascinating.  Fun fact: the jumping out of the water activity seen here is called porpoising.  It is behavior common to many species of dolphin, but not seen in any species of porpoise.

Eventually we returned to the lounge to continue the scheduled activities, only to be interrupted by the appearance of another pod on our starboard side.  We were pretty much dolphined out at that point so after a few minutes of photography we returned to complete the scheduled activity.  So goes the trip.  If this is how they will treat the published schedule this could be the greatest experience ever!

Eventually though, we got thru with the Expedition Team presentation and moved on to the mandatory abandon ship drill.  Having completed that we rested (the morning having been so stressful) until lunch.  

I should mention that the skies today are gray and threatening, with occasional brief showers.  The crew keep assuring us that it never rains in Baja so we don’t need to pay attention to the rain.  Interesting.

Just before lunch they posted the schedule for the afternoon’s activities.  Cheryl and I had chosen “snorkeling 101” – a refresher course for people who had never snorkeled or people (like us) who hadn’t snorkeled in a long time. We were assigned to group B which meant that we were to report to the staging deck in wet suit with fins and goggles at 2:45.

During lunch the boat moved to its anchorage just off Playa Ayla, where the afternoon’s activities would be staged.

Said time eventually came and we did as assigned.  We were loaded onto our pontoon boat for the short trip to shore. 

There our instructor instructed us in the finer points of snorkeling (“The most important thing is to look stylish.”) and lead us on a brief tour of the cove.  We saw boxfish, puffer fish, an eel, some sea stars; and got comfortable with our gear.

By the time we made it back to the beach it was raining pretty steadily, not that we particularly cared since we were dressed in wet wetsuits, but we were a little on the chilled side so we grabbed a shuttle and headed back to the boat for a warm shower.

The crew’s story now is that the rain is a great thing and will make for lots and lots of greenery for the rest of the week.

Returning to the boat we rinsed out our wetsuits flippers and masks and hung them to dry on “3 aft”.  Then we retired to our cabin for hot showers.

Thus restored we made our way down the hall to the lounge where we joined friends in recounting the adventures of the day, sharing stories from our storied past and such (all while being sufficiently lubricated to assure that the name “booze cruise” was more than a joke).

During happy hour the expedition staff appeared to discuss tomorrow’s planned activities and take sign-ups.  Cheryl and I decided to forgo the burro ride in favor of a guided kayak trip and a “skiff ride.” The former is, well, kayaking. The latter promises to be an opportunity to catch more wildlife farther afield and closer to the shore than the ship will allow.

Eventually it was dinner time.  This evening our choice was mahi-mahi, excellently prepared with sweet potato purée and roasted vegetables.  The chef is really showing his stuff this trip, though in reality he is only trying to keep up with the pastry chef.  Desert this evening (for Randy) was a white chocolate cheese cake – but that only served as the base for incredible unnamed spices.  The table agreed that the cheese cake was even better to this noon’s amazing rice pudding.

Following dinner we repaired to the lounge for a talk by our resident biologist: Marine Mammals 101.  Very interesting (even though Randy spent some of the talk “resting his eyes.”

Then it was off to our cabin to finish up this entry and drift off to dreamland.

Not sure what the weather is like outside.  Currently the boat is “rockin’ and rollin'” thru a series of swells as we work our way northward.  Hopefully the weather will be more clement tomorrow.

Till then, nite all.