Cabo San Lucas, Thursday, January 5, 2023

 

Thursday, January 5, 2023 

Cabo San Lucas 

We pulled into the bay this morning around 9:00 a.m. Once at anchor, staff started launching lifeboats. That sounds ominous, actually a very positive thing. Many cruise lines hire local tenders in ports where they must anchor and not be moored to a dock. Viking has opted to use their own lifeboats as tenders and utilize their own highly trained staff for operating these tenders. They do a tremendous job! 

What seems like it should be a fairly simple operation, there are some complications. The tender is impacted by the swells and bobs up and down next to the ship while passengers’ step from the ship to the tender. But the tender is moving up and down by at least a couple of feet. The staff assist the passengers by talking them through the process. (i.e. “get ready”, “don’t step now”, “Big step NOW”) and also holding on to the passenger while they follow instructions. Keep in mind that many of these passengers have major mobility challenges. Staff takes it in stride and know exactly how to assist. And always with a smile.

Inside the Tender. Without utilizing every seat available, there were probably 60 or so people in the Tender 

 Our tour was to start at 1:00 for a 2-hour whale watching excursion. We made it precisely on time and were led to a large catamaran. We found seats towards the front and settled in. Part of the excursion was an open bar. We each enjoyed a beverage, although we could have requested more throughout the journey, one was enough. About 1:30 we pulled away from the dock and headed out of the harbor and towards the iconic view of The Arch. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Bright and sunny with air temperature around 75 F.

After a few minutes hanging around the arch allowing for a photo op, we headed on out around Land’s End and into the Pacific in search of Whales. It didn’t take long, and we were following a humpback as it “blew”, surfaced and disappeared for a few minutes, just to do it all over again. One of those surfaces was right next to our boat. WOW! After a while, we saw the whale’s flukes (tail) and down it went. It was doing a deep dive. We knew it would be a while before it came back up, but continued on the same heading. Then we saw a couple more whales off to the left. One was breaching. So cool! Then there were 3 whales. The guide believed the one we had initially been following, had joined with the other 2. In many of the photos, we were far enough away that I’ve had to crop down the photos to show the whale so they are pretty grainy. But we’ve got our memories. Our time was up, so we headed back towards Cabo. Another photo op of The Arch, this time from the Pacific side.

Spouts from a couple of whales.

2 Humpback Whales

Fluke

 

Breach

From a friend on the boat with us. A much better photographer. 

In the background you can see a new golf course going in on the cliffside.

All in all, a great afternoon.