23 - 24 February, 2007
Guerrero Negro, Baha California Sur, Mexico
--- population: 6,000?
Mario’s RV Park
Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...
Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Bahia Concepcion on the Sea of Cortez to Guerrero Negro on the Pacific, a drive of 198 mile drive. We stayed here two nights.The town of Guerrero Negro (Black Warrior) was named after a 19th century square rigger that was the first trader to anchor in the lagoon, called Scammon‘s Bay.
The bay is site of one of the largest salt plants in the world. It produces 5 million tons annually, mostly sold to Japan. Salt water is pumped into pools to evaporate, the salt is scraped off and loaded onto barges for shipment. Some crystals get pretty big.
The bay is famous for being the winter birthing grounds for gray whales that spend their summers in the Bering Sea and migrate 6,000 miles south annually. 90% of the whales go to several Mexican west coast lagoons, 10% to Korea. The whales select the Mexican lagoons for the climate and the waters salinity and shallowness. The females arrive early to birth and tend their babies. The males arrive later to mate with non-mothering females then in March they all head back north 6,000 miles. We were watching at the left near the entrance to the bay on the left.
Upon our arrival at the boat dock for the whale watching boat ride we were met with the news that one of the whale watching boats had had an accident, no details -- an earlier segment of our group had gone out earlier in the morning. Ambulances arrived and the survivors shortly arrived and it was a boatload of our people. No one was dead.
Several were taken to the hospital and released after treatment. Casualties included broken ribs, a head laceration, fractured T-3 vertebra, dislocated finger, broken nose, dislocated internal organs, and a mangled knee that later required hospitalization in San Diego due to infection. Fortunately the boat, with a hole in the bottom, was able to beach before it sank and other boats arrived to transport the people back.
The Mexican driver of the boat had lost his attention and ran into a large mooring buoy. To Charlie, with his sea experience, this was quite understandable; it is amazing how fast things come up on you out on the open water.
Everyone in our later group segment was given the option of “chickening out” or go out as planned. We all elected to go out and it was worth it.
Whale watching requires being at the right place at the right time, close surveillance all around the boat, and a fast camera to get a picture. Charlie had a slow camera. The dialog went something like this between wife and husband:
...“There’s on at one o’clock. Quick get it.”
...“You missed most of it.”
...“There’s another one. Get it.”
...“You missed it again!”
..“I did get a piece of it.”
The baby whales came right up to the boat and could be touched, they felt like soft leather. The mothers, encrusted with barnacles (which gives them a gray appearance) hovered closely by and were not threatening.
Of course when sighting a close-in whale, everyone moved to that side of the boat except Charlie who moved to the other to counter-balance it. It was funny watching people in other boats around us all preoccupied looking in one direction while a whale surfaced unnoticed just behind them. I don’t know how many we missed.
After a lot of whale watching we returned by the infamous mooring buoy to see some seals who bask on top. In the left picture on the front of the buoy you can see some blue paint from the earlier collision.
Charlie titles the right hand picture, “Hey, you guys are tipping the boat!”
Next: Catavina
Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara
