Daniel Botelho - Hunting Blues

Da Shark had some fine praise for underwater photog Daniel Botelho last week via Marty Wolff.

When I read his post I had to agree. I met Daniel a few years back at Isla Guadalupe when he came to shoot our whites.

What struck me about Daniel was his quiet grace. Here is an underwater photog that takes his time, chooses his moment, and get's the shot. He's also a first class guy to hang around with and our crew came to respect and love the guy during the week we spent with him at 'Lupe.

Yesterday another series of Daniels was revealed on Facebook, this time Daniel tackled Blue whales.

Hard to find, even harder to capture on film and yet, Daniel, swimming in a cloud of Krill, manged to capture these magnificent animals.

Well some of them. In a way part of the majesty of these critters is their elusiveness and their wraith like ability to hide their impressive bulk in the mysterious deep blue of the oceans.

Sea of Cortez - Production Adventure 7

Good friend Captain Greg Grivetto of Horizon Charters is on another eco adventure and this time in the company of the BBC as they film their much acclaimed series,“Last Chance to See”. Biologist, naturalist, writer - Mark Carwardine and esteemed actor Stephen Fry host this series and will be aboard aswe search for blue, sperm and humpback whales.

For the next two weeks he'll be sending us his "notes from the field":

We've all seen video and photo of the aerial majesty of the humpback whale. If you've not heard the song of the humpback you have probably lived in a cave since the invention of the hydrophone. But there is a difference between what you see and hear on television and true life experience.

From dawn to dusk we were surrounded by humpbacks that seemed to be as comfortable out of the water as in! At times we could look north, south, east and west with whales flying in every direction. There was more than one occasion when two to three whales from a pod would be out of the water in unison. It is a tremendous sight watching a 45 foot humpback become airborne!

Late morning we shut down Horizon's powerplant one final time and quietly deployed BBC's hydrophone to give a listen to our aquatic surroundings. The sound that emanated through the speaker system on our back deck...words do not do justice. I found an immediate smile on my face as did all present. Once again, to hear it on the tele and to hear it live are completely different.

The remainder of the day was spent with one pod of whales or another as we enjoyed an aerial ballet, tail lobbing and spy hopping. Time was spent with a cow and calf that produced melancholy results as Mark Carwardine felt that something may have been wrong with mama. She seemed lethargic and the calf was less than pleased, or it so appeared.As the sun dipped below the horizon a huge school of baitfish rose from the depths and with it a hungry school of mobula's, their wing tips breaking the surface as they attacked the frothing baitfish. It would SUCK to be named bait.

Tonight, our final night with BBC aboard, we are anchored off of San Jose del Cabo. After a fun night of name that tune, I'm off to bed with songs from the past swirling in my head and visions of flying humpbacks decorating my thoughts.

Everyday in the Sea of Cortez this past week has been magical. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!

Adios,

Captain Greg

Sea of Cortez - Production Adventure 4

Good friend Captain Greg Grivetto of Horizon Charters is on another eco adventure and this time in the company of the BBC as they film their much acclaimed series, “Last Chance to See”. Biologist, naturalist, writer - Mark Carwardine and esteemed actor Stephen Fry host this series and will be aboard as we search for blue, sperm and humpback whales.

For the next two weeks he'll be sending us his "notes from the field":

I need to talk to the people that named this place Sea of Cortez. There seems to be a bit of confusion as to who's Sea it really is. The namer believes that it is Cortez's sea, we believe that is the Sea of Whales. I will discuss this with the powers that be in Mexico and will get back to you.

So what did we see today after I wrote you all's this morning? Well, read my list below:

1) 2 humpback whales 30 miles north of Cabo San Lucas
2) 100 sportfishing boats, yachts and pangas on the Golden Gate Bank 20 miles north of Cabo. Of which at least 1/2 of them were engaged with marlin, tuna or what appeared to be wahoo. There were marlin jumping everywhere! Would be a cool place to be before the boats arrived, say 7:00am. Find a bait ball and jump in to swim with the marlin!
3) Cabo San Lucas....what a zoo...
4) THE SEA OF WHALES!!!! It was like an infomercial for the humpback species. Jumping over here, frolicking over there. We stopped with one pod and watched them swim the length of the boat and then pop up 40 feet off the stern. And then as I drove off, one of them did a full body breach!
5) Jumping mobulas everywhere. Mobulas are the smaller cousin to the manta ray. The biggest I saw today was pretty big though, 8 feet across or so. It jumped directly in front of the boat about 40 feet off. A bit closer and we would have been trying to toss it back into the water!

Bottom line is that today was amazing! The life is incredible in the East Cape area and based upon reports should continue farther up into the Sea as well.

As I write we just dropped anchor in the Bahia de los Muertos. The boat has been moving for three straight days so we decided to give her the night off. She quoted some union law concerning 72 straight hours of work and mandatory overtime pay...yada, yada, yada. Whatever you say boat. 

In the morning, after the boat gets a good nights rest, we will depart for La Paz. We'll be cruising past my buddies place, Palapas Ventana, along the way. If you are looking for a great place to stay that will give you the flavor of Baja, Tim's place IS the PLACE you're looking for. Okay Tim, where's the $20 you said you'd give me for the plug?

Until Manana!

Captain Greg