atlastrekker.com

I love my job. I just want you all to know that. One of the best things about it is the change. There is always change happening. People and places, coming and going. One is never far off from an exciting moment out here.

Things are shifting in a pretty serious way right now. A month from now there will be very few people on this boat, the NGSB, in the same position they were a week ago. It’s kind of fun to watch things change, people learn new skills and people go through the trials and tribulations of moving up the ranks. My Good friend Lucy just got promoted to Chief Mate, so congratulations to her! This means that there will be a shuffle all the way down the line, most likely, of people moving up or moving out.

Another of my good friends, Kathy is getting a big promotion to Hotel Manager. I’m pretty proud of her, she’s worked hard to get it. This change will be a whole different feel for the ship, and there will be much shuffling on the hotel side as well.

When I look at the changes that have happened over the last two years, I am amazed at how well things go. There have been so many people that have come and gone, yet still the ship runs smoothly, the guests are happy and all is well. I don’t get it, but I’m grateful for it.

It certainly is an interesting and crazy life out here. I’m glad I get to be a part of it.

I changed my mind. The truck is for sale, and I’m buying the GMC 4×4 van.

The more I got to thinking about it, the more it made sense to do it. The extra room, the ability to live fairly comfortably in the van while on any one of the various road trips I have planned just makes sense. The more I thought about sleeping in the back of the truck with my two kids, the more I didn’t like the idea. There’s just not enough room in there. I like the thought of being able to sleep in my vehicle without having to pull all my gear out to do it. There’s been several times I’ve longed to be able to do this, while sitting out a mid afternoon thunderstorm.

Since the van is lifted with nice 35″ TXR tires, has a very strong running engine and transmission and will need little in the way of repairs right off the bat, I’ll be able to move right into making it livable on the trail and the road. That makes me happy.

Here it is:

What do you think about this? Comments, please!!

After taking off from Cabo yesterday we ran into a couple of humpbacks that were pretty active. They were breaching over and over again, as well as pectoral flapping and tail flapping. The humpbacks made up for a slow couple of days of grey whales.

I’m getting closer to taking a good picture, but I think that I’m kind of limited by the camera I have. I’ll just keep trying to make the best of what I have, because it’s what I have.

In the last week we’ve been here in Mag bay we’ve only seen a handful of Grey Whales, and it’s got us all wondering…..where are they? I took some time out yesterday to go on a zodiac cruise and we didn’t see one whale in two hours. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does it’s bad. The Expedition Leader is even thinking about not coming here next week, maybe going somewhere else. That’s OK with me, I wouldn’t mind a change in the norm.

The sunset was extra cool last night, that’s a picture of it above. There’s just a sliver of the moon, and it was rising as the sun was setting. It was a good end to a good day.

So now we head south, back to Cabo and then on to the Sea of Cortez. Now that things have mellowed out a bit and I’m settled into my new position I hope that I’ll be able to get off the boat a couple times and get some alone time with the wilderness. I could use some of that.

I thought I would put a map of the area up, so that those of you who have never been here in Baja can see where I’ve been talking about a little better. Looking at the map you can see San Carlos on the Pacific side of the peninsula. If you look closely you can see that there are several islands north of there, which is where we spend half of our “Among Great Whales” trips. This area is called the Hull Canal and it goes from San Carlos to a small town named Lopez Mateo. Just up from Lopez Mateo is the “nursery” where Grey Whales bring their babies after birthing them in Hawaii. The actual name for it is La Boca de Soledad.

After hanging out with the baby whales for couple days, we head back south through the canal then out through La Entrada and down to Cabo. Sunrise at the Arch on the end of the peninsula has become a weekly coffee brake like no other! We now pass up the very touristy San Lucas and head over to the less touristy and more uppity San Jose for a water stop.

Leaving east from San Jose to the Gorda Banks, where there it ALWAYS lots of wild life we usually spend quite a bit of time just watching the whales play. We usually head on up north after dark on our way to Espiritu Santo and Los Islotes for some snorkeling on the following day. Espiritu Santo has some great beaches, many of which I’ve been to at various times over the years. The waters in this part of the Sea of Cortez have some huge pods of common dolphins. They are so much fun to watch!

We often spend the last full day of our trip around Isla Santa Catalina, at the beach with the two elephant rocks and lots of barrel cacti. This island is just south of Loreto, though it’s not on the map above. Loreto was, up until recently, a popular for place for Americans to buy homes as a get a way. This has slowed recently I hear, which is probably for the better. Early on the morning of the last day we pull into the dock in La Paz for disembarkation and then later embarkation of guests for the next trip.

One other interesting note, the dotted line across the map is the Tropic of Cancer. I never thought about the fact that Cabo was in the “Tropics” but now that I know it really does make sense.

Even though I’ve done this trip many times over the last couple years I still really enjoy it. Baja is a beautiful place, the sunsets are amazing, and the wildlife is abundant. I have in the works now a write up of the places I would visit if I were to come down here on a serious budget, but if you can afford one of these cruises it’s the best way to see it all.

My first week long trip as Chief Engineer is over and done now, and I survived. Really, it wasn’t so bad at all. Things broke, some I fixed, some I figured out how to deal with until the can be fixed. I had a good time, though. I guess that’s all that really matters.

Luckily I’ve got a great assistant, who’s on the ball and a hard worker. I also have some great deck hands who go out of their way to help out and do the right thing. I’m a lucky man.

The start of a great thing.

Life out here in Magdelena Bay is pretty mellow. About half of our trip is spent here, “on the hook” so to speak. We start a two week stint in The Sea of Cortez, spending three days island hoping and looking for whales, dolphins and sea lions, then we come up into Mag Bay for the second half of the week. After hanging out in “the nursery” at La Boca in Mag Bay we go down through the hull canal to San Carlos where we end the trip. The following week we do the reverse, to end up in La Paz back in the Sea of Cortez.

The Grey whales have been pretty good so far, it’s still early in the season, so they will be more and more active as we go along. I just heard that we had our first “touch” of the season. It’s a special treat to be able to touch a Grey whale, I’ll tell you! I’ve been lucky enough to do it twice now. It was a couple of years ago, but the feeling of how it felt is still fresh on my mind. I have no words to describe it, all I can say is that it’s a once in a lifetime event.

Lucky for me, I get the opportunity lots of times a year. What a great way to live!

I actually got the Fluke in the shot this time! Now I just have to figure out how to get the focus right and get it centered. Who would have thought this would be so difficult?

I think that I’ve mentioned this before, but my old ship, and the sister ship to the one I’m on now, the National Geographic Sea Lion is currently sailing down in Panama and Costa Rica. It seems that they had an interesting night last night. about 1 am the officer of the watch spotted a man in a life jacket in the water. He pulled the alarm and the crew got the man out of the water, only to find out that there were three more men at sea with him. After a vigorous search the crew of the NGSL found another man swimming, then a minute later pulled a dead man with no life jacket out shortly after. The search for the fourth man never came up with anything, it’s assumed that he was swept out to sea.

Apparently the four men had rafted down a river, and when they hit the “bar” or spot where the river meets the ocean, the raft capsized and sent them into the water. This was around 4 pm. The men tried to right the raft, but a swift current made it impossible, and soon the four got separated from each other and the raft.

Once the sun went down there was no way for the men to know which way the shore was, and the men had to wait for the sun to return. Apparently the wait was too much for all four of them, and they went crazy after only a few hours of floating along. The dead man had removed his life jacket, and the other two who survived told the crew of the NGSL of the things that were going through their head all night.

It’s enough to make me think about how I would deal with being in the same situation. It’s one thing to guess, but it’s something else entirely to be there.

A friend sent me a quote, I thought I would share it here.

“There’s three types of people on this planet. Those alive, those dead, and those at sea.”

He says it’s an old maritime saying, but I think it’s pretty spot on. Living on a ship in the ocean is definitely an alternative state. Electronic gadgets have come a long way towards bridging the gap between the living and seaman, but there is still a long way to go. If it weren’t for the ability to communicate with satellite services most people here today would not make it a week. I know this for sure.

I’m not a huge fan of crazy new technologies that seem to be popping up today, but I sure am grateful for this cool invention. Satellite internet has given the seaman just enough reality to still be a part of the real world.

The reason why I bring this up is a good friend has resigned from his position on the ship recently. This happens commonly here, and I don’t think that the average person, who works in a “normal” 9-5 type job can understand it. When you go off to sea your life in the outside world is at a stand still, but the problem is the world still goes on with out you. You get older, your friends get older and have life experiences, family changes and for that matter the whole world changes.

At first this isn’t so noticeable, but with time it becomes more and more evident to the seaman. Things like having a home that “feels” like a home and having “normal” relationships get farther and farther away with time at sea. Sooner or later this becomes a huge burden, and the burden leads to a career change. For some this burden comes in months, and for others it comes in years, but it comes no matter what.

So this gets me thinking of what I’m going to do to keep myself from feeling the strain. I think that in some ways, I am slightly immune to the relationship part of the strain, because of my situation. I have two kids, two ex-wives and I’m in no big hurry for more. There is no biological clock ticking. I’ve lived that life already. I’m sure someday I will be able to have a relationship that works for me and my career, but I’m not overly concerned about it.

The house and feeling like a home part has already started to wear on me a bit. Currently, I’m homeless. I just rent a place for a few weeks when I go home then put all of my stuff in storage while I’m gone. This has been a great way to get ahead and live cheaply, but I’m pretty much over it at this point. I have a mission, and that is to find a nice little house, where my things can live while I’m gone and I can be comfortable when I’m home. It doesn’t have to be anything special, or huge, but I need it to be mine.

When I go home next, I’m going to find a home. That’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it. Once I do that, I think I’ll be good to go with this career for quite some time.

The picture above is pilot whales, and it’s the closest I’ve gotten to a decent picture of whales to date. I’ve only seen pilot whales a couple times so far, so it was pretty cool to see.

The best thing about Baja is the sunrise and sunset. Every day, it’s one beautiful sunset after one amazing sunrise. It’s hard to be mad or sad when you start and end your day like this.

Things are going pretty good with the boat at this point. We are making some great progress on fixing up the boat and getting it fine tuned. In this job that doesn’t happen too often so we are enjoying it. Waiting for the next major ordeal is always fun. I’m getting to know this boat pretty well now, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time tracing pipes and wires. I feel pretty comfortable now.

The Island we were at today was Isla Catalina. It’s about as far north as we will go in the Sea of Cortez at this point in the season. Located a bit north of Loreto, it’s not nearly as traveled as some of the islands further south. My favorite part is the rock outcropping at our anchorage that looks like an elephant. I’ll snap a picture next time we are up here.