The Nautilus Gallant Lady is ready to ride the waves of the Sea of Cortes for the Mobulas and the Orcas 2023 season and we the crew are so excited about it.
Under the command of Captain Yann, the Gallant Lady is ready for our first trip of the season. The boat has been cleaned and is in great condition after refit. Our speed boat (RHIB) with its 2x250s outboards is ready to go, and the pilot of the spotter plane is waiting for us to take off.
The guests will arrive soon and we can’t wait to be out again crossing the Cerralvo channel, La Paz Bay, San José channel, Las Animas, and all over the southern Sea of Cortes, searching from sunrise to sunset for incredible sea animals. We hope to have close encounters with schools of mobulas, friendly dolphins, humpback whales, fin whales, sperm whales, blue whales, and of course the always mighty and incredible orcas!
We are hopeful that Mother Nature will bless us with all her wonders and on our part, we promise not to do anything that will upset the routine lives of the animals by forcefully intruding into their domain. We intend to humbly and respectfully put all our energy and efforts to have beautiful encounters on animals’ terms and we are confident that our guests will return home with memories of a lifetime.
Let us get started! It is time to sail again and launch the 2023 season.
Five Days of Incredible Encounters with Sea Creatures – A Guest’s Perspective
Once we cast off on our journey, as guests we had an amazing five days of diving. We have seen bottlenose dolphins, false killer whales, mobulas, sea lions, humpback whales, and fin whales. We swam with mobulas so frequently that we got a bit bored (just joking). Every day we saw humpbacks – more often than not breaching and enjoying life. Put these sightings today and it is enough memories to last a lifetime.
On the second day alone, in the Sea of Cortes, we got to see humpback whales, swim with a massive (300+) pod of common dolphins, and later in the afternoon be with hundreds or maybe thousands of mobula rays!!!
I would like to specially mention Thursday or Mobula Thursday as it should be called. We had an incredible encounter with mobulas (munk rays) at El Saltito Beach. Impossible to count how many were there, because the layers of mobulas went deeper as we were able to see.
But it was not only below the surface but over it too. The action was crazy as the mobulas were flying out of the water nonstop for more than 10 minutes, took a break, and started again and again until the sun went down. It was a scene straight out of wildlife movies and we were so lucky to be there to witness this phenomenon.
Summing up
This last week was one of the best of my life. Even if the orcas never made an appearance, I would still do this week over again. In fact, I plan to come back to find the elusive killer whale. Until then, I will remember this week with deep fondness and fascination for all the wonders and life the Sea of Cortez has to offer.
We were treated by the staff like royalty and the friends that we made onboard are destined to last forever.
